Community Helpers

Last week we discussed community helpers and careers. We started with fire safety and read many, many books, but here's a couple that were popular:



 In Pre-K 1 we made shape fire trucks. This craft is a sneaky critical thinking activity. We made one fire truck together as a class and then provided all the pre-cut pieces. The peas were asked to attempt to reconstruct the truck to look like the first one. Then they could personalize their trucks by drawing firefighters on their pictures.

Finished product:

We also discussed stop, drop and roll and talked about what smoke alarms are. We challenged the peas to go home and locate their smoke alarm (or fire alarm) in their homes. We discussed what to do if you were ever in a place filled with smoke from a fire. You have to crawl on the floor! We practiced by crawling under a blanket.

This activity was a hit. We did it more than one day. :)



Pre-K 2 talked about traffic safety and made these stoplights!

They learned how to trace, cut and glue on their own. 

They even added words to their lights!

Pretty impressive, guys!

Both classes enjoyed a stoplight snack craft. They were a big treat since we used frosting and m&m's to make them.

Pre-K 2 began working on writing numbers since we will be introducing our daily math books soon.





They continued to work on writing names,

and used their number writing practice to do a community helper counting sheet.

Both classes also started our Handwriting Without Tears curriculum this week, too. You can check out their site here. 

 Pre-K 1 introduced our literacy buckets this week. The peas have been begging to work with the buckets, but we introduce them slowly so we can model how to use the materials. They were thrilled when they found out they were going to be open this week.

We continued morning messages as well and worked on writing letter A.

 After discussing some careers/community helpers, we discussed some ways we could use our centers to explore different careers. The peas decided that we could make our home center into a restaurant. We added a chef hat, menus and aprons.

 It got a lot of business.

 

 After discussing doctors and how they care for us we made doctor bags in Pre-K 1 for fun and to use in our imaginative play.

 

 Ms. Amy put out her astronaut set and we used the space station.

 

One of the most popular centers all week was the Engineering and Construction center. We discussed how engineers use blueprints as a plan for buildings. Then a construction crew works to build the building. We planned and then built many structures. Here are a few:

And we built and built...

 

Pre-K 2 had some really great engineers, too. Everyone worked together!

We definitely had a busy week full of hands on learning and I'm confident these sweet peas can grow up to be anything they set their minds to!