Community Helpers Unit Plan 

	Math Center	Literacy Center	Drama Center	Art Center	Science Center
Week 1 – Introduce Community Helpers Big Idea: Where do community helpers work? What tools do they use?	- counting with pennies - 1:1 correspondence	- grocery lists for the drama center - discuss list making	- grocery store - signs for fruits, vegetables, bakery - cash register	- coin rubbings on tracing paper - cut the paper into small squares to make the activity easier	- make play-doh - leave play – doh at the center for play
Week 2 – Everyday Helpers Big Idea: Postal workers deliver mail. Teachers help us learn. People have different jobs.	Small group lesson: - discuss the relationship between different coins - have a mini-shop at the math center and have students simulate buying things	Post office with letter box - go over the conventions of letter writing in a mini lesson - have envelopes, stamps, and special paper available for letter writing	- continue grocery store (was popular) - add price tags to items with students	- structures with recycled materials - lesson looking at sculptures, critical thinkingàwhat was used to make this sculpture? How do the sculptures stay together?	- add baking tools and mock oven to simulate a bakery - during the making of pizza dough, discuss yeast/sugar reaction
Week 3 – People Who Help us Stay Healthy Big Idea: Doctors and nurses make sure our body stays healthy. Dentists keep our gums and teeth healthy.	- use 5 frames - make a giant 5, have students stamp red or green apple prints - discuss the different combinations (3 green, 2 red; 1 red, 4 green etc.)	Continue with letter writing - introduce the proper way to address the envelope, where does the stamp go? Address? Etc.	Begin a Vet Clinic - stuffed animals, operating table, vet equipment (we used a doctor’s set)	- structures with recycled materials continued - begin sharing the sculptures made by students	- stethoscope, have students listen to their heart beat - have a chart for students to record how many beats they hear in a minute
Week 4 – People Who Help us Stay Safe Big Idea: Fire fighters put out fires. Police officers can help us when we have problems.	Use shapes to make a fire truck Discuss the different shapes used	Thank you card to the firefighters for our great trip to the fire station	Continue the Vet Clinic, add other community helper costumes (police officer, mail carrier, fire fighter, construction worker)	- plastic wrap on paint to make pictures that look like they have flames	- smoke detector with magnifying glass - allow students to look at it

Week 1

Books Used

- Zigzoo, When Dragon Catches a Cold

- Whose Hat is This?

Week 2

Books Used

- When I grow up (also the poem of the week)

- Ella Takes the Cake

- Trashy Town

Special Activity

Community Walk Scavenger hunt

- have students find the buildings in their pictures on our community walk

- discuss the purpose of the buildings in their pictures and their importance in the community

Week 3

Books Used

- Pizza

Special Activity

Making Pizza

- Tuesday make the pizza dough à discuss what makes the dough get bigger (yeast reacting with sugar)

- Wednesday make the pizza

                - do a chart to graph the students favourite topping

Week 4

Books Used

- Canadian Firefighters

Poem

I’m a little firefighter on the go

Here is my helmet

Here is my hose

When I see a fire

Hear me shout!

“Turn on the water,

And put the fire out

Shhhhh”

Special Activity

Field Trip to the Fire Station

- debrief, make a ‘At the Fire station, I saw...’ book as a class

- send the book home for parent comments