Your hometown heroes help you stay safe and keep your community working. Learn about your community’s helpers by outfitting them with their gear and uniforms.

• 1.

  With your class, brainstorm a list of community helpers such as firefighters, police, and teachers. What do they do? What do these workers wear? What tools do they use to help them do their jobs? Look for a diversity of jobs and people.

• 2.

  Choose someone you would like to show, dressed and ready for work. Use Crayola Twistables® Colored Pencils to draw a big person on a recycled file folder. Cut out your community helper with Crayola Scissors.

• 3.

  Draw your person’s face using Crayola Twistables® Crayons and Colored Pencils. Does she or he look brave and caring? Happy to be helping?

• 4.

  On another recycled file folder, draw the helper’s uniform. You may want to place the cutout body on top of the file folder so you can get the clothing to be just the right size. It might be a jacket and hat, uniform, pants, or a dress. Color in the clothing and then cut it out.

• 5.

  What tools does your worker use? A hammer, a whistle, computer, or a stethoscope? Draw and color the tools and then cut them out.

• 6.

  Add Velcro® dots to the front of your worker and the backs of uniforms and tools. Display your helper’s uniform and tools. Share information about your worker’s job and tools with your classmates.

Standards

• LA: Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
• LA: Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting or plot.
• LA: Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding word s.
• LA: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
• LA: Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.
• LA: Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to clarify comprehension, gather additional information, or deepen understanding of a topic or issue.
• VA: Use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories.
• VA: Use visual structures of art to communicate ideas.

Adaptations

• Classroom resources include: Whose Hat is This? A Loo at Hats Works Wear by Katz Cooper, Sharon Muehlenhardt and Amy Bailey; Career Day by Anne Rockwell; When I Grow Up by P.K. Hallinan
• Organize a field trip to a fire station, community library, police station, or other facility. Students collaborate to write a book that describes and illustrates what they learned on the visit. This original book can be shared with parents and family members.
• Invite a community worker to the classroom to share his expertise. Students compose interview questions prior to the visit. After the visit, students collaborate to write and illustrate a thank you not to the visitor, expressing appreciation for serving the community.
• Organize a Career Day for primary students. Older students dress the part of a community helper; younger students work as the apprentice for the day and learn first-hand about the career. All students post to a school blog after the activity sharing their experiences. Older students can assist younger students with their postings.