Community Helpers are fascinating people our kids see every day. They are the mail carriers and fire fighters and garbage collectors and construction workers that help build and deliver and fix our neighborhoods and communities every day.
Young children are often fascinated by these people. Their uniforms, their jobs, their trucks – it is all super interesting to toddlers and preschoolers.
This week were are going to explore this interest of Community Helpers.
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Books about Community Helpers
Trash Town : FEATURED BOOK
Written by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha
Illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
This fun book is the featured book for this week’s Virtual Book Club for kids. You will never look at the garbage truck and his garbage collectors the same after you read this cheerful, colorful book. In part because your kids will want to read it again and again.
Clothesline Clues to Jobs People Do
Written by Kathryn Heling and Deborah Hembrook
Illustrated by Andy Robert Davies
This is a fun book that encourages kids to participate. Each page has clothes hanging out to dry and the reader is invited to figure out what occupation they belong to before they turn the page. My kids love figuring this one out and I love the variety of jobs and the sweet illustrations.
Whose Hat is This? is a good alternative if you can’t find this one.
Incredible Inventions
Collected by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Illustrated by Julia Sarcone-Roach
This book is not just about community helpers but it does have poems about many things we see daily. Since we are deep into a month about poetry for kids so I had to tie in some poetry to our story time. I love the way this books shows different ways to play with words on paper and it helped inspire our activity below.
Community Helpers Poetry Morning Invitation
This month’s A Read A Day theme is Poetry for National Poetry Month so we definitely have poetry on the brains. This activity is a simple poetry activity, but also just a words activity to help kids think about different words and build vocabulary.
If you want to learn more about writing poetry with kids I love these help a child write a poem tips from Read Write Think.
I laid this activity out on Saturday morning as a Morning Invitations for my twins.
Materials
- Books about Trucks (or whatever you want to make poetry about)
- Community Helper Vehicles or other manipulatives that relate to your poems
- Letters (We used our Giant Bananagrams for lots of letters)
- Pencil and Paper
- One piece of colored construction paper per child
- Glue Sticks
- Child Scissors
Set Up
We did this activity after we had already read all three of the books above. It pulls particularly from Trashy Town and from Incredible Inventions so I laid those two out on the table with our Bananagrams letters.
I spelled out the word TRUCK on the table and then left the rest of the letters scattered around on the table.
Then I laid out our collection of wooden trucks.
Activity
1.The first stage of this activity is an exploration stage and that was what my kids did as their morning activity. They played around with the letters and looked at the books.
Depending on the age of your child they may put the letters in order, sort them, try to spell some words, or maybe just build a tower out of the tiles. In the exploration stage there really is no wrong way to use the materials as long as they aren’t harming them.
Note: bananagrams tiles are quite small so I wouldn’t leave them out with kids who tend to mouth things or with kids under 3.
My twins focused on the books and made a few words with the tiles. We frequently use the tiles for working on sight words because it gives them some tactile input and interaction with materials that helps one of my kids internalize words more.
2. Read aloud the books on the table again. I re-read Trashy Town and a few of the poems. I chose poems that were laid out in interesting ways like the Popsicle poem and the roller coaster poem.
3. Trucks and Letters. Next my kids each chose a truck (an object would work) and we sounded out how to spell that truck. For example, my daughter spelled T A X I with her tiles. If you’re working with younger kids, perhaps you just have them find the first letter.
4. Words. Then I asked my kids to think about some more words that help describe their vehicle. They wrote these down on the paper I offered them next. For younger kids, you will need to write these words down for them. Having them dictate words and watching you write are helpful for developing literacy skills as well.
At this point you can either continue using the tiles to build words if that appeals to your child. I asked my kids if they would rather make the words with tiles or cut them out. They opted to cut out their words.
They cut them down to just the words. Then I handed them each a piece of colored construction paper so they could then manipulate their words on a page.
5. Poem Creation.
We looked back at some of the poems in the book and how the words were laid out in different ways and then I again just let them play. They played around with the words – what order they wanted them in. How they wanted them laid out in the paper in front of them.
When they were happy with their poem they read it aloud to me. If they were still happy and didn’t need to “edit” it then we glued it to the construction paper with a glue stick. Again, if you’re doing this with a younger child they will need more support.
Our twins proudly read their poems aloud for daddy when he got home and then we hung them on our art wall.
This was an easy process that had them brainstorming and playing with words. We will definitely be repeating this with other themes in the future.
20+ More Poetry Activities for Kids
If you are a member of the A Read A Day community (totally FREE – more on joining here) you know that we are enjoying POETRY with our kids this month for National Poetry Month.
If you’re looking for ways to extent all those fun poetry read alouds you are doing – here are some more fantastic ideas.
- Read More Poetry (always a good place to start) – Our List of Top 10
- Poetry Basket for Creative Writing Fun from Creative Family Fun
- Name Poetry for Kids from Mama Smiles
- The Rhyming Rabbit – Storytelling, Puppets and Poetry from Multicultural Motherhood
- Writing Bio Poetry from Proud to be Primary
- Write Silly Space Sentences from Rainy Day Mum
- Poetry Journals for Kids from Buggy and Buddy
- Write your Own Color Poem & Printable Template from School Time Snippets
- Beach Ball Poetry from Creative Family Fun
- Valentine Mobius Strip Serpentine Poetry from Share It Science
- Solar System Poetry from Rainy Day Mum
- Color Shape Poetry Writing from Proud to Be Primary
- Outdoor Play Party – Poetry Pebbles from Kitchen Counter Chronicles
- Reverso Poems from Mama Smiles
- Spring Acrostic Poetry from Proud to be Primary
- Teach Poetry with The Five Senses from School Time Snippets
- Poetry Unit for Preschoolers inspired by Shel Silverstein from Preschool Powol Packets
- Poetry Books for Children and Poetry Unit Ideas from The Mommy Evolution
- Find even more poetry ideas on my Poetry Unit Ideas Board
More Activities about Community Helpers
Are you a member of the amazing Weekly Virtual Book Club community on Facebook? It is free and fantastic weekly fun. Together a team of co-hosts (including yours truly) share a favorite children’s book and related activities each week. Join our community of over 6,000 creative parents, teachers, and childcare providers!
These are the activities from our team of co-hosts this week! I can’t wait to see what you do with our bookclub book this week.
Literacy Activities
- Wheels on the Bus Story Study
- 10 Best Children’s Books about Firefighters for Toddlers
- Community Helpers Beginning Letter Sounds Activity from Rainy Day Mum
Math Activities
- Community Helpers Numbers Game from Inspiration Laboratories
Science, Technology and Engineering Activities
- Wheels on the Bus STEM Activity from JDaniel 4’s Mom
- Construction Truck Picture Books + Math Activity for Toddlers and Preschoolers
- Fire Station Field Trip & Unit from Bambini Travel
- Embroidered Trash Can : Early Sewing from Sugar, Spice and Glitter
Movement Activities
- How Can I Be a Community Helper from Mama Smiles
- City Bus Field Trip with Toddlers & Preschoolers from Bambini Travel
- Little Excavator Story Time + Movement Activity
- 12+ My Community Adventures for Toddlers from Bambini Travel
Shop for Inspiration
