Last week my daughter and I read some great books about community helpers and did some activities to recognize the community workers all around us. Now we are noticing all the people that help us on a regular basis. The librarian, the eye doctor, the worker at the dry cleaners, and the construction workers along the side of the road all are community workers. We’re grateful to all in our community who help make our lives easier and more pleasant! Together we did hands-on and interactive activities to recognize community helpers.
For my 4-year-old daughter, my emphasis this week was on the fact that we all have our jobs. Her job right now is being a 4-year-old kid, but she also needs to help in our home with dishes, cleaning, and being a cheerful presence. We talked about all the things that she does in our home to be a helper. We talked about how she can work even though she is young.
Books about Community Workers
It was fun, of course, for her to remember the familiar people that help in a community. Here are some of the community helper books we read.
Whose Hands are These? by Miranda Paul. Strawberry and I loved that this book is a guessing game!
Whose Shoes are These? by Laurie Purdie Salas follows a similar idea, this time basing our guesses on the footwear.
 The Berenstain Bears on the Job by Stan and Jan Berenstain. My daughter loves these bears and so it was fun to explore jobs with them! I also loved that being a mom or dad was an option for them, too.
Community Helper Activities
After we read these books, we played our own guessing game. I would think of a community helper and tell what he or she did, and Strawberry would name the community helper! To add to the fun, I made community helper clip cards to play with.
This deck of clip cards include a variety of workers matched with either their place of work or the vehicle they would use, with a little bit of overlap. For example, a fire fighter matches to both a fire station and a fire truck). Click over to the product at TeachersPayTeachers or get it from my shop!
I also made a Boom Cards version of the game as well, for when Strawberry begs for tablet time. She finds it easy, and it’s always fun to click the answers and hear the correct “ding.” I even made a version with a princess to match with the castle (because that’s what she wants to be when she grows up). With the Ultimate membership, I can make my own customized private decks, in addition to selling in the Boom Cards Shop.
We also played with the My Town Floor Puzzle.
I love this toy because it has a puzzle of a town and then an alphabet of community helpers to fit into slots and play in the town. Since my daughter loves to assign everything a personality, this is a fun imagination game too. We also try to think of things that begin with each letter as with play with the community workers so they can have a “letter” adventure.
Pulling out our old vehicle town set (available as a FREEBIE) also was a fun part of remembering all the aspects of our community during our week.
With these simple activities, I felt like we got a great overview on how a community works together to bring peace and enjoyment to our neighborhoods. It’s also a nice reminder to me that we do all have our place in the community, and that we all help each other in our own ways.