I think most of you would agree that this year has been difficult to say the least. As you all clearly know, the whole world has been going through a pandemic, and our country has been going through A LOT.
However, continuing on to the end of this year, I do feel a great sense of thankfulness and for everything we’ve been blessed with. I’m thankful for two healthy and happy boys. I’m thankful to have a roof over our heads.
Character Value: Thankfulness
With Thanksgiving coming up at the end of this month, I thought we could spend a few weeks focusing on the character value of thankfulness! It’s a great reminder not only for our kids, but definitely for myself as well.
Community Helpers Unit
One of the things that I’m really thankful for this year in particular are all the essential workers and community helpers that have been working so hard.
I thought it would be great for our kiddos to learn about these hard working individuals this week!
Activities About Community Helpers
Day 1: Firefighter Craft
Today, we will start by reading Clothesline Clues to Jobs People Do to introduce various jobs and community helpers to start the conversation. And then you can ask your child, “What do you want to be/do when you’re a grownup?”
My 3 year old wants to be a firefighter when he grows up, so today we will be making a simple firefighter craft.
I plan on printing out my son’s face and using construction paper to make a firefighter’s hat and then using paint to put his hand prints below.
You obviously don’t have to make a firefighter, this activity is easily adaptable to whatever your child wants to be when he/she grows up.
Day 2: Match Tool To Community Helper
Today we will be doing a sensory bin with whatever you choose: beans, rice, macaroni, etc. In the sensory bin, I will be hiding various “tools” for different jobs. For example, a toy hammer for construction worker, a stethoscope for doctor/nurse, etc.
Once they find one and pull a tool out, they can tell us who uses that tool.
Whose Tools Are These? would go along great with this day’s activity.
Day 3: Alphabet Practice With Rice Sensory Activity
We will take a break from community helpers today, and practice our letters!
Letter of the Week: H
This week, we will be learning the letter H. I switched the writing worksheet a little bit and added dotted letters to provide a little extra assistance to our kiddos.
My son has been really great at tracing letters, but struggles with writing on his own. Recently, I have been doing dotted letters for him to trace. So I thought I would add it to the worksheet itself!
After getting familiar with letter H. I plan on making a sensory bin with rice.
I will hide magnetic letters in the rice, and get my son to find the letters using a spoon or tong. After finding a letter, place it on the fridge or another magnetic surface (or even just a sheet of paper or the floor) in the correct order of the alphabet.
Optional: You could do this activity twice. The first time, you could use a dry erase marker to write the letters in order to help with the ordering process. The second time, you could try to get them order it by themselves by singing the alphabet song.
Day 4: Make Cards For Community Helpers
To express our gratitude and thankfulness to our community helpers, I wanted to make cards to hand out.
I would start by brainstorming with your child and thinking about the people we want to thank. You could make a list and decide how many cards you will make.
We made cards for our family members last week and decorated them with leaf rubbings. I thought we could do something similar, but instead of leaf rubbings, we could directly glue on pressed leaves.
I used mod podge to glue the leaf on this card, but I think using Elmers glue or hot glue should work as well.
Tip: To prevent molding, make sure the leaves are completely dry before gluing them on!
You could just write something simple in the card, and get your child to trace it. I plan on just writing “Thank You!” or “Thank you for your hard work!”.
Day 5: Give Cards To Community Helpers
Today we will be giving out the cards that we made yesterday to our community helpers! You could drive/walk to different places and hand out the cards.
*Please remember to follow the pandemic rules of each location, and keep safe during this activity.
Community Helpers Song
Books
Whose Tools Are These? by Sharon Katz Cooper
Clothesline Clues To Jobs People Do by Kathryn Heling
Whose Hands Are These? by Miranda Paul
Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora
Tinyville Town Gets To Work! by Brian Biggs
Tinyville Town Time For School! by Brian Biggs
Tinyville Town At the Firestation by Brian Biggs
Snowmen At Work by Caralyn Buehner
Peppa Pig and the Career Day
Peppa Pig When I Grow Up
Police Officer on Patrol by Kersten Hamilton
Fly Guy Presents: Firefighters
Delivering Your Mail A Book About Mail Carriers
Bible Verse: Psalm 136:1-3
Going along with our character value this month, we will be memorizing these verses throughout the next two weeks. This printable is included in this week’s lesson plan download.
Community Helpers Lesson Plan Download
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