Introducing community helpers

One of the most common topics in the preschool classroom is community helpers. Whether you do a theme week about them, or regularly rotate community helper costumes through your dramatic play area, you’ve probably covered them at some point throughout the year. There’s good reason for this; we want our children to know who they can turn to when they need help, and we want them to recognize that we all play a role in making our community run successfully.

My favorite way to introduce this topic to preschoolers is with a discussion.  I ask them to name adults that help them,  to which they typically reply with family members – Mom, Dad, Grandma, you get the picture.  Then I encourage them to think about the places they like to go and the people that work there. 

After we answer those questions I try to broaden their thinking with questions that inspire them to think about other types of helpers:

• Who can help us when we’re in trouble?
• Who takes care of us when we’re sick?
• Who keeps our community clean?
• Who keeps us safe?
• Who takes care of animals?
• Who sells us the things that we need?