Welcome to the classroom! We love to play, learn, create and sing together in the classroom, and we’d like to encourage our classroom friends to keep learning and playing at home once Caitie’s Classroom is over. We’ve put together activities and resources so the playing, learning, creating and singing doesn’t have to stop once Caitie says goodbye. Try these out at home or in your own classroom, and have fun!
There are a lot of people in our community who help make it a healthy, safe, and enriching place to live. Those people are called community helpers. In this episode, we explore different community helpers and the jobs they do. You can pretend to be community helpers at home and role-play the different jobs for lots of learning and fun! Read on for tips on how to recreate the community helper activities from the classroom at home, and ideas on how to expand on them for more learning and fun!
Doctors
Doctors, nurses, and the many people who work in health care are important in a healthy community. Here are a few ideas for exploring those community helpers at home!
- Pretend to be a doctor! Have either the child or caregiver can pretend to be a doctor and the other the patient. You can switch afterward. The doctor can check the patient’s heartbeat, look into their ears, nose, and throat, and take their temperature. Record your findings in a pretend chart (you can just use a piece of paper!).
- You can also pretend to be a doctor with a stuffed teddy or doll, like Caitie does in the classroom.
- Pretend to be an eye doctor! Print out an eye chart with numbers and letters in different sizes, and see if you read everything on the chart from a little space away. Try reading with one eye open and one closed, then switch! This is also a great way to practice and review number and letter recognition.
- Get out your stuffed animals and pretend to be a vet! A vet is a doctor who looks after animals. You can pretend to take their temperature, pretend to listen to their heartbeat, and check their eyes, ears, noses, and throat to make sure they are healthy. You can even try to wrap an arm or leg of your stuffed animal with tissue paper to make a pretend cast.
Matching Game
Community helpers use different tools to help them in their important work. In the classroom, Caitie matches items to different community helpers.
- Use our free printable to match the item to the community helper! Follow along with Caitie in the classroom as you complete your worksheet, or try it on your own!
- Try using flashcards or images of community helpers and match the image to real life items.
- Bring out some costume pieces and dress up as different community helpers.
- Some suggestions for role play costumes and props:
- Farmer: overalls, straw hat, bandana, seed packet, watering can, small shovel.
- Firefighter: fire hat, boots, hose, fire truck toy.
- Teacher: pencils, paper, chalkboard, chalk, books.
- Doctor: white coat, clipboard, toy doctor items like a stethoscope or thermometer.
- Mail Carrier: bag of mail, envelopes, mailbox.
Mail Carrier
Mail carriers deliver the mail to the right place. They have a very important job and many people in the community rely on them. You can try being a mail carrier too!
- Sort different pieces of paper that are different colors into piles. Mail carriers have to sort all the mail and be sure they don’t make any mistakes!
- Make your own Mailbox Craft, just like the ones Caitie uses in the classroom. Match the envelope to the correct mailbox. You can use numbers, letters, colors, or shapes to match your mail to the right mailbox.
- Try placing a few mailboxes around the house and have your little one find the right mailbox to deliver letters.
- Try writing different family member names on each mailbox and write a letter to each family member, placing it in the correct mailbox for them to receive.
- If practicing colors, find a few small toy items around the house that match the color of your mailbox and place them inside to color match.
- When you go out for a walk, take a look at the numbers on the houses or mailbox. Point out the numbers and see if your little one can tell you what they are.
- Use stickers as stamps! Practice peeling stickers and putting them on a piece of paper to be delivered.
- Have a friend write a letter to your little one and send it through the mail. Then write one back!
Visit To The Fire Station
In this episode, Caitie is super excited to get an invitation to visit the fire station! Some fire stations allow visits, or if you walk by, you might be able to see the fire fighters and their big red fire trucks!
Here Comes The Fire Truck
- Watch our animated video of Here Comes The Fire Truck.
- Fire trucks are usually red! What other things are red? Have a color hunt looking for red things!
- Make your own Here Comes The Fire Truck Play Set Craft!
- Watch Caitie act out Here Comes The Fire Truck with the play set. Follow along with your own!
Community Helpers Car Mat
Print out the Community Helpers Car Mat – the same one Caitie uses in the classroom! Pretend to drive different community helpers vehicles around the community, and match them to the right spot. Here are a few ideas for matching:
- Police car – police station
- Ambulance – hospital
- Fire truck – fire station
- Car- library
- School bus – school
- Big truck – grocery store
- Garbage truck – recycle centre
High Five For Community Helpers!
Community helpers and any special members of the community deserve a big high five every now and then.
- Follow our instructions to make your own high five craft to give to the community helpers in your community.
- You can make a high five for all different types of community helpers, or make one high five to celebrate one kind, like the way we made a high five craft in the classroom for the fire fighters. You can drop off your high five at the fire station, or make one for your next doctor’s visit or for your teacher!
- You can use our community helper printable to help make your craft, or make your own!
- Making this craft is a wonderful way to say thank you, but don’t forget – you can say thank you to any community member any time. Just smile, and say, “thank you for all you do for our community!” They will love to hear it.
We hope you have fun singing, playing, learning, and creating! We love to see photos of our friends having fun in the classroom and of their wonderful creations! You can share them with us through social media or by sending us an email to hello@SuperSimpleOnline.com.
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Worksheets (1)
Community Helpers Worksheet – Match
Games (1)
