The Community Helpers theme in Preschool is so fun, and so busy! There are so many activities for community helpers, and so many community helpers to choose from. Here are a few fun books and activities that focus on the many people who help make communities, strong, safe, and healthy that your preschooler will love.
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Books about Community Helpers
There are so many books to choose from. Sometimes it’s fun to read fun, fictional character books about community helpers to have a nice story. It’s also nice to read some non-fiction books that give a good picture of what different community helpers do.
The My Community Jobs books come in many titles, and they are very straight-forward with info about different community helpers. My daughter loved learning facts about the many jobs a community helper does.
My Community Jobs also have books about chefs, mail carriers, bus drivers, garbage men, and librarians. Sometimes we forget just how many people are involved in helping our community function and be a great place to live.
The Community Helpers series by Bonnie Phelps is also a great set of books with illustrated descriptions of what different people do in the community. We read the Dentist, Librarian, and Firefighter stories.
There are plenty of books with fictional storylines as well. Remember reading Richard Scarry books as a kid? Those animal characters were fun to hear come to life. There are plenty of Community Helper books by Richard Scarry’s:
- A Day At The Fire Station
- Smokey the Fireman
- A Day At The Police Station
- Postman Pig and His Busy Neighbors
If your child likes Barbie, there is an I Can Be – A Teacher book that we read that was pretty fun. Barbie follows the kids through a school day to see what it’s like to be a teacher.
Preschool Activities About Community Helpers
As I said, we read a lot of books about Community Helpers. After we read a book, we would try to do a fun activity that turned my preschooler into that community helper.
Preschool Activity for a Fire Fighter
Fire Fighter- we sprayed out candles with a spray bottle, but it caused a bit of jumpiness in my daughter since it was very loud when the water sizzled on the flame. It was maybe a little too direct of a teaching moment, and I don’t recommend this, but instead- use some orange pom poms (those little fuzzy balls) and set a few on the table. Put a tablecloth down first if you prefer. Then use the water-spray bottle to squirt the pom poms, moving them until they drop off the table and the “fire” is out.
Preschool Activity for a Doctor
Doctor– Do you have some baby dolls laying around? Grab one or two, and then use a doctor set to examine the baby, check the heart and blood pressure, and give her a sticker! There’s something about playing doctor that kids just love, so this is the perfect way to incorporate play into community helpers.
Preschool Activity for a Baker
Baker– This was one of my daughter’s favorites, as you end up with something yummy in the end. My daughter looked through my Pinterest board of desserts (supervision on the computer always recommended). She picked out some gingerbread balls dipped in chocolate, and they were delicious! We worked together to make these treats, just as a baker would make treats, breads, pastries, and more for his/her community to enjoy.
Preschool Activity for a Teacher
Teacher– My daughter really enjoyed this one as well. I brought up one of our preschool posters. Make sure to use something (whether it’s a poster or a simple book) that your child is confident in. I used a poster of colors. We then set up some “students” (stuffed animals and dolls) and my daughter used the poster to practice colors with her “class.” She loved pretending to be the teacher.
Other ideas to help your child be a teacher is have them read a simple book, teach their “students” a song, or teach them about numbers. This is such great practice for the preschooler, and a fun way to teach about how teachers help the community.
Preschool Activity for a Construction Worker
Construction workers help build homes, fix roads, and maintain sidewalks in our community. To bring this to life, all you need is some Legos or any other type of building blocks. You could use Lincoln Logs, Mega Blocks, wood blocks, or even sugar cubes if that’s what you have. Don’t have any of that? Just use some crayons and paper to design a road with stop signs and traffic lights. Or draw and color a house!
If you do have some sort of building blocks, challenge your preschooler to build a house or castle. If you have train tracks, build a railroad. Just encourage any type of building to show how hard construction workers work to keep our community functioning.
Preschool Activity for a Garbage Collector
This community helper activity is pretty to the point. I had my daughter help me collect garbage from around the house. Since it was part of preschool, she actually enjoyed doing it since it wasn’t a “chore” at that point. We put it in the garbage bin, and then we watched for the garbage collector on our trash day. My kids love watching the garbage truck. Have your child take notice of how your garbage is collected. Does the garbage collector have to pick up the garbage bin? Or does the truck have a mechanism that picks it up on its own? What happens to the trash after that? Where does the garbage collector drive the truck and where does the trash go?
We actually learned all of this from one of my son’s favorite books, I Stink, which takes you on the journey of a garbage truck.
Preschool Activity for a Mail Carrier
This Mail Carrier activity could also be counted as math, as it uses number practice. It can also be done using supplies from home.
Grab 10 bowls, boxes, or even Tupperware containers. Write the numbers 1-10 on pieces of paper and tape them to the front of each container. Then, use 10 envelopes and write 1-10 on each envelope. you can put the containers in order if your child is just starting to work with numbers, or you can mix them up and place them around the room if they are ready for a challenge.
Hand the child the envelopes that each have a number on them. Now your child is a mail carrier, and must deliver each piece of mail to the correct mailbox!
This is a fun way to practice numbers, matching, and be able to get up and stretch during the school day.
Other Community Helpers Learning Activities
A lot of the other things we did included printables and activities that I found on Pinterest.
Community Helpers Write the Room
We love doing “write the room” activities. It’s kind of a matching game, with pictures around the room that match the pictures on the paper of the clipboard you walk around with. Once you find a picture, find the match on your clipboard and color it in. While my daughter did this, we talked very briefly about what each community helper does as she found it. We used the Community Helpers Write the Room from A Dab of Glue Will Do.
Community Helpers Interactive Play
There really are so many ways to incorporate play into a preschool Community Helpers theme. One is to grab these fun vests for a quick dress-up. Then let your child lead (or give suggestions to help them learn about each helper) and create make-believe scenarios. Ask your child how they can help the scenario using the skills of whichever community helper they are dressed as.
To play without purchasing the vests, just draw up some badges with each helper’s title on it and tape them on the child’s shirt.
Community Helper Preschool Theme
There are so many awesome printables available for a Community Helpers theme as you’ll find with a quick search on Pinterest. Hopefully here at Let’s Jet, Kids! you’ve found some fun, interactive, hand’s on ideas for activities for Community Helpers with your child to supplement with. Let us know which activity your child enjoyed the most in the comments!
For more preschool ideas, check out our other preschool posts!