This is a guest post by Susan Paul, who will be contributing a series of posts over the next few months. If you like what you see here, check back frequently for more posts from here and  click here to read her blog, The Fun Factory .  Click here to see her other posts on our blog!

This is the time of the year to study community workers. October is Fire Prevention Month so it makes it especially fun to study and focus on firefighters. However, it is a great time to study about many people who are “helpers” in our community. Here are some ideas of what you can do for your community unit.

1. The first lesson is to talk about what a “community” is and the different types of “communities” we have in our lives. Read  What’s a Community?   from the  My World     series. It is a great book to introduce different types of communities. Review and ask the children about the different types of communities and coax them to answer in complete sentences. This is another reason I personally love the book. For example, ask the children to name a kind of community. They might answer “classroom”. Then ask them to repeat their answer in a complete sentence. Until they begin to understand, turn in the book and reread a page. For example,  “A classroom is a community.”  (page 10). Then the children repeat the sentence. Before long, they will be able to do it!

2. Introduce the next lesson with a newsletter (see picture). Can you tell what the focus letter of the day was? Then read  Very Important People  (also from the  My World   series). Each day focus on one community worker. Post the community worker poster of the person you focus on for the day. (The posters are a freebie for you!) Discuss the worker, tools they use and how they are important to the community.

3. Continue in the same way each day, reading newsletters and re-reading the books. Use the book and hunt for “clues” to “read” the words. For example, the children look at the picture on page 5  ( Very Important People )   and think the person is a “teacher”. (The person is actually a  librarian .) Acknowledge that she  is  a teacher but encourage them to look at the “clue” of the first letter of the word. “Teacher” begins with /t/ /t/ /t/ “t”. This word begins with /l/ /l/ /l/ “l”. Continue in the same way throughout your study.

4. Another fun thing to do is to use any costumes you have that represent community helpers. Place the posters of the workers you have talked about in the Dramatic Play Center and then allow the children to dress up when they go to the center.

5. Make class books in the Writing Center titled  “When I Grow Up I Want to Be…” .

These are just a few ideas. There are many, many more activities that I wish I could share. Besides using the wonderful Hameray books, the entire community worker’s unit is listed at   Teachers Pay Teachers . Enjoy the posters and enjoy your study on community workers!!

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For more information about the  My World series shown in this post, click here to visit our website, or click the image on the left below to download a series information sheet with key features. To download the freebie, click the image to the right.