Community helpers and all around town preschool and kindergarten activities, games, and crafts. Let's celebrate the work people do in our communities. As children build literacy, develop vocabulary, practice math concepts, sing songs, sort materials, and participate in dramatic play activities, they learn about the tools, uniforms, and tasks of a variety of community helpers such as police officers, garbage collectors, veterinarians, postal carriers, and more!
Invite children to think about the homes and buildings in a town and build them together with the blocks. Add some labels (Hospital, Police Station, Fire Station, School, Grocery Store, etc.) and some tape. Let children place the labels on the different buildings. Add street signs and card stock streets for children to build streets as well. Add toy people and cars.
Have children make menus of items that will be served at their resturant. Have children cut out pictures of food from magazines and flyers. Invite them to create menus and write the names and prices on each menu item. Let them cook and serve food to their friends.
Make a list together as a group of the many jobs people might have in a town. Sing the song and let children guess the community helper. Place a picture of the community helper on the board.
What Is My Job?
(Tune: Are You Sleeping?)
What is my job?
What is my job?
Can you guess?
Can you guess?
I help people get well.
I help people get well.
Who am I?
Who am I?
*Other verses:
I can fix the water pipes.
I deliver letters.
I make tasty meals for you. I keep your pets healthy.
I can teach you new things.
I can help if you get lost.
Writing Prompt:
"When I grow up I want to be ..."
The People in Our Town
Original Author Unknown
(Tune: The Wheels on the Bus)
The librarian in our town says,
"Read a book, read a book, read a book,
" The librarian in our town says "Read a book"
all day long.
Repeat with following verses:
The firefighter in our town says, "Stop, drop, and roll" ...
The teacher in our town says, "Let's learn something" ...
The carpenter in our town says, "Give me a hammer" ...
The mail carrier in our town says, "Here's your mail" ...
The doctor in our town says, "How do you feel?" ...
The dentist in our town says, "Open up" ...
Community Helpers Matching Game
Print pictures of different community helpers (firemen, police officer, doctor, teacher, baker, mail carrier, etc.) and some objects that relate to each community helper (firetruck, police badge, mail bag, books, etc.). Let your children match the object with the community helper.
Community Helper, Hats, and Tools Matching Game
Focus on different community helpers during the year for children to learn more about their jobs and how their work helps the community.
Discuss what doctors, vets, and nurses do. Provide band-aids, tongue depressors, cotton balls, white shirts and let children pretend to be doctors, vets, and nurses taking care of sick teddy bears or stuffed animals.
Doctor and Vet Headbands
Make a headband out of two white strips. Draw and cut out a circle out of card stock and let children cover the piece with tin foil to make a light/mirror. Glue to the headband.
Discuss with children what firefighters do and how they help the community.
Fire Fighter
Fire fighter, fire fighter, hear the alarm
Save the building, from any harm.
Fire fighter, fire fighter, no time to rest
Wake up, wake up, do your best!
Create some fire shapes out of yellow and orange craft foam and let children use squeeze bottles filled with water to put out the fires.
Variation: Use red and yellow sidewalk chalk and draw flames on a sidewalk and let the children put them out with water bottles.
F for Firemen and Fire
Write the the letters F and f on some of the fire shapes. Let children put out the fires with the letter F.
Ladder Counting and Gross Motor Skills
Tape a ladder with masking tape on the floor, with each "step" about one foot apart. Write the numbers 1-10 on index cards and tape them in each step. Let children line up before the ladder and hand out a number card to the child in front of the line. Let the child name the number and jump up the ladder the matching number of steps, counting as he/she goes.
Discuss with children the work policer officers do and how they help the community. Use ink pads to make fingerpint cards. Write the name of the child on the car and let children use a magnifying glass to examine the fingerprints. Make a police hat and police badges.
I Am A Policeman
(Tune: I'm a Little Teapot)
I am a policeman, with my star.
I help people near and far.
If you have a problem, call on me.
And I will be there, 1, 2, 3!
Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?
Pick one child to be the police officer and give him/her a police officer's hat to wear. Have the rest of the children chant "Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?" The police officer will point to one of the children in the group. The accused child will chant: "Who me?" and the officer will chant, "Yes you." Then, the accused child will chant, "Not me," and the police officer will ask, "Then who?" The child acting as the police officer will switch places with the child he/she pointed to, and that child will become the police officer for the next round.
Let children write letters and cards to their friends and place "stamps" on envelopes. Create mailboxes out of shoeboxes and let chilldren pretend to be postal workers and deliver the letters to their friends.
Mailbox Match
Place a shape, letter, or number on the shoe box mailboxes. Next get several envelopes and write the corresponding number, letter, or shape on the mail. Have your children match the mail with the matching mailbox.
Mail Carrier, Mail Carrier, Where's the Mail?
Address an envelope. Choose one child to be the postal carrier. This child's role in the game is to guess which of the other children has the letter/piece of mail. The postal carrier faces away from the others and closes his/her eyes while the teacher hands the envelope to someone in the group who hides it behind his/her back. All of the other children keep their hands behind their back as well. Then, the group calls out, "Postal carrier, postal carrier, where's the mail?" and the postal carrier gets three chances to pick which child is hiding the mail.
Ask parents to send used stamps to school with their children. Have the children sort by size, color, or picture (people, places, things).
Mail Carrier Song
Original Author Unknown
(Tune: My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean)
I get to sort the mail,
Then carry it to your home.
The mail comes from all over,
Like New York, Paris, and Rome.
Mail, mail, mail, mail,
I love to deliver the mail, mail, mail.
Mail, mail, mail, mail, I love to deliver the mail.
Graham Cracker Mail
What you need:
Graham crackers
Gel icing in different colors
What you do:
Make one letter (piece of mail) using one whole graham cracker per child. Add the initial letter of a child's name on each graham cracker written in gel icing. Place small rectangles of gel in the upper right corners of the graham crackers to look like stamps. Place the graham cracker "letters" on large trays, and call on children to come up, one or two at a time, to get their "mail."
Discuss what construction workers do and how their work is important for our town.
Construction Worker Song
This is the way we pound our nails,
pound our nails, pound our nails,
This is the way we pound our nails, so early in the morning.
This is the way we saw our wood,
Waw our wood, saw our wood.
This is the way we saw our wood, so early in the morning.
This is the way we use a screwdriver,
use a screwdriver, use a screwdriver,
This is the way we use a screwdriver, so early in the morning.
This is the way we drill a hole,
drill a hole, drill a hole,
This is the way we drill a hole, so early in the morning.
Addition Verses:
Saw the wood
Turn the screw
Stack the bricks
Paint the walls
Stir the paint
Cheese Cube Hammers
What you need:
Cheese cube for each child
Pretzel sticks
What you do:
Let cheese cubes stand at room temperature 10 to 15 min. or until cheese is at room temperature. Let children gently push pretzel stick into the center of the cheese cube to make a hammer. Enjoy at snack time.
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Soft & Safe Community Helpers |
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