My Community Lesson

Objectives (what do I want them to learn)

1. What’s a community
2. My house
3. My neighborhood
4. Who lives in my neighborhood
5. What kind of jobs are in my
6. How do we get around in my community
7. How do we help each other
8. How do we read a neighborhood map

Community helpers downloaded book on computer.

Caretakers book on computer.

City places book on computer

All kinds of farms on computer

Roads book on computer

Community work book on computer

Police officers book on computer

Families’ book on computer

The firefighter on computer

A visit to the zoo on computer

My Community by Evan –Moor on social studies book shelf

Library list

Communities by Lisa Trumbauer

Community helpers from A to Z by Bobbie Kalman

All about Community Helpers: a complete resource for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade teachers by Sharon MacDonald

A day in the life of a farmer by Heather Adamson

A day in the life of a firefighter by Heather Adamson

A day in the life of a police officer by Heather Adamson

A day in the life of zookeeper by Nate LeBoutillier

A day in the life of a doctor by Heather Adamson

Fireman Small w/ cassette by Wong Herbet Yee

Walter the Baker by Eric Carle

Officer buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathman

I want to be a police officer by Liz Alexander

Families by Ann Morris

Families by Gail Saunders-Smith

Building a house by Byron Barton

No Mail for Mitchell by Catherine Siracusa

Post Office video recording

I want to be a firefighter by Dan Liebman

We need mail carriers by Lola Schaefer

I want to be a doctor by Dan Liebman

Doctors by Dee Ready

I use math at the doctor’s by Joanne Mattern

Calling Doctor Amelia Bedelia by Herman Parish

Dooby dooby moo by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

Curious George goes to the Zoo

Baker, Baker, Cookie Maker by Linda Hayward

Out and about at the bakery by Jennifer Ericsson

Mr. Santizo’s tasty treats by Alice K. Flanagan

Mr. Cookie Baker by Monica Wellington

Duck on a bike by David Shannon

Boats afloat by Shelley Rotner

Boats, boats, boats by Joanna Ruane

Trouble for Thomas by Kenny McArthur

Vroom, Vroom makin dozers, copters, and more by Judy Press

The Wheels on the school bus by Mary-Alice Moore

Lesson 1: Families, Neighborhoods, Communities

Books:

Communities

Families

Families by Ann Morris

Families by Gail Saunders

Building a house

City places book on computer

We’ll read these books and talk about how many different families make up a community.  We will also talk about how we all work together to help the community.

Talk about how we in a family work together and help each other how we each have a role to play.   I’ll also take the kids on a walk around our neighborhood pointing out places of interest and talking about how our neighbors live in these homes.  Homes come in many different sizes and shapes.  In our particular neighborhood we have apartments, mobile homes, single story and double story homes. 

Activities:

We’ll read the poem and song The People in Your Neighborhood on this page. *language arts

Make a family tree *art and social studies

http://www.dltk-bible.com/genesis/families/my_family_tree.htm

Family hands paper mache craft *art

http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/miscellaneous/family_hands.htm

Make a milk carton house. *art

You could use hand cutouts to practice counting to five or for counting by five’s.  *math connection

Lesson 2: Community Helpers

Books:

Community helpers from A to Z by Bobbie Kalman

All about Community Helpers: a complete resource for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade teachers by Sharon MacDonald

Community helpers downloaded book on computer

Community work book on computer

We’ll talk about the different types of community helpers and how they help the community.  We’ll just briefly talk about them as we will be looking at some more closely in the next few lessons.

Activities:

Who lives in your neighborhood?

http://bensguide.gpo.gov/k-2/neighborhood/index.html

Community Helpers song

Do this craft project.  These puppets could also be used for counting and doing simple addition and subtraction programs.  *art, social studies, math

Visit this interactive site to learn about different community helpers.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/commclub/

What’s my job interactive site?

http://www.hud.gov/kids/whatsjob.html

Use this to template to make a helping hands wreath.  On the hands print different community helpers you could also have them add a picture and a brief description of how they help the community.  You could add skip counting to this activity by using the fingers of the hands.

*art, social studies, math

Have them use this to think of ways 2 community helpers are the same and different.

  *language arts

Lesson 3: Police

Books:

Police officers book on computer

A day in the life of a police officer by Heather Adamson

Officer buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathman

I want to be a police officer by Liz Alexander

We’ll talk about what a police officer does and how he is our friend.  We’ll talk about some of the different tools a police officer uses.

I’m a police officer song *language arts

http://comsewogue.k12.ny.us/~rstewart/k2001/Themes/community/helpers.htm

Police coloring page

http://www.coloring.ws/police.htm

A printable story coloring book

http://www.hendersonville-pd.org/kids/coloringbook/

Make a policeman badge.  Use cardboard, foil, and a paintbrush.  First cut out the shape of a badge.  Then cover it in foil and use the paint brush to draw a design in it to look like a policeman’s badge.  You could attach a safety pin with some tape. * Art

You could use a washable ink pad to make fingerprints on a paper.  Make them in a matter you could use for counting, learning about sets, and for addition or subtraction problems. * Math

You could also use a magnifying glass to look at the fingerprints you made.  Discuss how nobody’s fingerprints are the same.  You could fingerprint every one in the family and look at how everyone is different. *science

Also talk about strangers and what to do.  You could talk about how to find a police officer if they are ever taken or lost.  *health and safety

Call and see if you could visit the police station

Lesson 4: Firefighters

Books:

The firefighter on computer

A day in the life of a firefighter by Heather Adamson

Fireman Small w/ cassette by Wong Herbet Yee

I want to be a firefighter by Dan Liebman

Activities:

Five Friendly Firefighters *language arts and music

http://comsewogue.k12.ny.us/~rstewart/k2001/Themes/community/helpers.htm

Firefighter coloring pages

http://www.coloring.ws/firemen1.htm

Interactive site to learn about fire safety *health and safety

http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/kids/flash.shtm

This is a fun site for kids to learn about fire trucks, fire safety and more.  *health and safety

http://www.sparky.org/

Here is a firefighter worksheet for them to do.  While doing this worksheet discuss the tools of a firefighter and having the right tools for a job helps you do the job and keeps you safe.  *science

Call and see if you could visit the fire station.

Fire engine puzzle to print *problem solving

http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/miscellaneous/mfireenginepuzzle.html

Lesson 5: Mailman

Books:

No Mail for Mitchell by Catherine Siracusa

Post Office Video Recording

We need mail carriers by Lola Schaefer

I’m a mailman song *language arts and music

Mailman coloring page *art

You could mail grandma and grandpa a letter.  Take a trip to the post office to mail it so they can see what a post office is like.  Also you could ask if they give tours (ours don’t anymore). *language arts

For a math connection you could have them weigh different packages, letters, and such.  They could also use a ruler to measure the sizes of the envelopes and post cards.  This would also be a good way to introduce rectangles to the preschoolers. *math

Have the kids practice writing their name and address *language arts

http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/miscellaneous/maddress.html

You could also start a stamp collection.

Lesson 6: Doctors

Books:

A day in the life of a doctor by Heather Adamson

I want to be a doctor by Dan Liebman

Doctors by Dee Ready

I use math at the doctor’s by Joanne Mattern

Calling Doctor Amelia Bedelia by Herman Parish

I’m a helpful doctor song *language arts and music

Doctors coloring page

Using these pictures of what’s in a doctor’s kit talk about what they are and how they use them to help people feel better. *science

Make a doctor’s collage.  Use materials you would find in a doctor’s office.  Do it in sets of. Like 5 band aids, 10 cotton balls and so forth. *math, art

Talk to the kids about the proper way to care for wounds.  Explain what happens if you don’t wash bacteria out of a wound how it can get infected.  *health and safety

Lesson 7: Farmers

Books:

All kinds of farms on computer

A day in the life of a farmer by Heather Adamson

Dooby dooby moo by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin

Farm Animals books (very easy reading)

Activities:

Counting by 2’s farm theme *math

http://www.kidzone.ws/math/ocean/dotsby2.htm

Counting by 5’s farm theme *math

http://www.kidsrcrafty.com/apples_5-100.htm

Single digit addition farm theme *math

http://www.kidzone.ws/math/farm/gr1-eggsaddition.htm

Farmer coloring page

Make stick puppets for the farmer lesson and have the child make up a story to tell or have them retell a story we read. *language arts

Animals and the products they produce worksheet *science

http://kiddyhouse.com/Farm/farmclips/animalproducts.gif

Write the proper name for the gender of the animals worksheet *science

http://kiddyhouse.com/Farm/farmclips/animalgender.gif

A coloring book that talks about things produced on the farm *science

http://www.agr.state.nc.us/markets/kidstuff/dotf/colbook.htm

Make a farm mobile *art and social studies

http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/mfarmmobile.html

On this site if you scroll down you’ll find some phonics worksheets that deal with the ow sound like in cows. *phonics

http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Farm/Cows/

Here you’ll find phonics sheets that deal with the ee sound like in sheep. *phonics

http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Farm/Sheep/

Here are some good lesson ideas for learning to read using the book Sheep in Jeep. *phonics

http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/pages/4787.shtml

Online concentration animal game *problem solving

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/animal_match/index.html

Lesson 8: Zookeepers

Books:

A visit to the zoo on computer

A day in the life of zookeeper by Nate LeBoutillier

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

Curious George goes to the Zoo

Plan a visit to the zoo. 

You could pick an animal to learn about before your visit. *science

Here is a template to make zoo animal puppets.  They could use these to make up a story or tell about their day at the zoo. They could also use it to tell about the animal they learned about before going to the zoo. *language arts

http://kinderplans.com/content.cfm?pageid=136

Use animal crackers for math problems – sorting, graphing, estimating, counting,

Have the kids estimate how many animal crackers are in the bag.  Then have them count the crackers.  They can then sort them according to the different types of animals.  Use a simple bar graph to have them graph the types of animals. *math  

Easy word search

http://www.abcteach.com/EasyPuzzles/wordsearches/lczoo.htm

Lizard jigsaw puzzle to print

http://www.lessonsense.com/animals/jigsawlizard.pdf

Elephant jigsaw puzzle to print (medium)

http://www.lessonsense.com/animals/jigsawelephant.pdf

Panda jigsaw puzzle (easy)

http://www.lessonsense.com/animals/jigsawpanda.pdf

Arrange the giraffes in order from shortest to tallest

http://www.lessonsense.com/animals/giraffeshorttall.pdf

Arrange the elephants in order from shortest to tallest

http://www.lessonsense.com/animals/elephantsmallbig.pdf

Lesson 9: Bakers

Books:

Walter the Baker by Eric Carle

Baker, Baker, Cookie Maker by Linda Hayward

Out and about at the bakery by Jennifer Ericsson

Mr. Santizo’s tasty treats by Alice K. Flanagan

Mr. Cookie Baker by Monica Wellington

Baker Coloring page

Baker toilet paper roll craft *art

http://www.dltk-kids.com/nutrition/mbaker.htm

Lots of cake coloring pages

You could use birthday candle to work out addition problems, counting, and other math activities.

Bake cookies, bread, and cupcakes with the kids and have them do the measuring. You could use icing bags and other things so they can decorate them to look like what you would find at a bakery.  Talk about how the ingredients look as you are mixing and explain how the heat from the oven is going to change them into something different.  *science, math

Look through old magazines for pictures of things you could find at a bakery.  Have them use these things to make a collage. *art

Lesson 10: Community Transportation

Books:

Duck on a bike by David Shannon

Boats afloat by Shelley Rotner

Boats, boats, boats by Joanna Ruane

Trouble for Thomas by Kenny McArthur

Vroom, Vroom makin dozers, copters, and more by Judy Press

The Wheels on the school bus by Mary-Alice Moore

Activities:

Sing the wheels on the bus *music

School bus template

http://www.kinderplans.com/admin/images/schoolbus.pdf

As you do the coloring pages talk about how the community uses each kind of vehicle.

C is for car page

http://www.first-school.ws/t/ap2/car.htm

V is for van page

http://www.first-school.ws/t/ap2/van.htm

Alphabet train printable

http://www.first-school.ws/theme/printables/alphabet-train.htm

Number train printable

Ambulance coloring page

http://www.first-school.ws/t/cp_transportation/ambulance.htm

Taxi coloring page

Truck coloring pages

http://www.coloring.ws/trucks.htm

Have them alphabetize a list of transportation vehicles. *language arts

Make cutouts of wheels for them to use for counting and counting by 4’s or 2’s *math

Make paper boats

http://www.sanger.ac.uk/Users/agb/Origami/simple_boat.gif

Make paper planes

http://bestpaperairplanes.com/

Journal writing topic – I like to ride

Lesson 11: Learning about maps

Books:

Roads book on computer

Make a map of our neighborhood.

At this point I’ll introduce north, south, east, and west.  I’ll show them other maps and talk about the different symbols we see on them.