There was so much do to for community helpers! We had a blast with this theme! Again, most of these ideas came from pinterest and just tweaked them to make them work for my class!
I cut a long piece of white paper and taped on the table. Then I glued large buildings, people cut outs, and their equipment to the paper. I had the students color the mural together with crayons. The students had a lot of fun working together on this project. They also enjoyed pointing out which part of the picture they colored. Together we made something great!
One day, the students came to school dressed as a community helper. (I had a few back-up options for anyone who forgot). We took pictures of the students all dressed-up and then made a list of clues about their job. People passing in the hallway could read the clues, then lift the page to see if the picture matches their guess! They had so much fun dressing up and seeing their pictures reminds them how much fun they had!
We brainstormed all the reasons we might have to take our pets to the vet! Then the students chose a dog or cat and colored it. They put a bandaid somewhere on their pet and the teachers asked, "What happened to your dog/cat?" We wrote down their responses and glued it under their colored picture.
I made “pancakes” out of brown construction paper and wrote CVC practice words on the back. Students took turns flipping the pancakes with a spatula and reading the word. Then they can found that word on their practice spelling worksheet and wrote it down. It was an interactive, fun way to practice sounding out words and handwriting!
We made mail trucks for an art project and then we picked a friend and wrote a letter to them. The letters said, "Dear ______, You are a good friend! Love, ________" Students had to write by themselves but they were able to look at an example while writing. Then we put the letters in envelopes and added a stamp! We put the letters in our mailbox and at the end of the day the "mailman" picked them up! At the end of the week, the letters were delivered to the mail trucks we made in art earlier in the week! By then, the kids had forgotten about the letters and were so excited to see mail in their mail trucks!
Other ideas:
We had a lot of special guests visit our classroom! Throughout the week we had a firefighter, police officer, army soldier, nurse, and a banker speak to our class. There's nothing better than a hands-on learning experience!
To be chef's, we brought in a bread maker and made yummy bread! We also made puppy chow!
We did a lot of fire safety practice after the firefighter came to our classroom!
