Doctors & Nurses Preschool Unit/Community Helpers

This study was especially personal to us because my father in law and mother in law are both nurses. We actually focused on nurses and EMTs more than doctors because of this personal connection. My father in law is a nurse in an ER, so we asked if one his few days off he could take us on a tour.  This was so meaningful for all of us, and I think my Father-in-law like being able to show off his cute grandsons in the process.:)

During this unit we expanded on our community helpers theme of Emergency workers.  We also dove into our health a lot because the whole job of a doctor is to keep us healthy.  It seemed a natural segway into talking about food groups and eating healthy food that keeps us strong.

Circle Time Discussions-

• What would happen if we didn’t have nurses and doctors?
• How can we help doctors keep our bodies healthy?

  
Wood Wall

•  Ambulance
• Nurse
• Doctor

Science Lessons: 

•  Four food groups- use My Plate Printables http://www.choosemyplate.gov/
• How to kill germs
• Eat a rainbow everyday
• Sing “Dem’ Bones” a lot while learning bones of our body
• We examined my husbands real xrays of when he broke his shoulder blade

Art activities-

• Color, cut, and glue hospital and ambulance to our larger city map
• Use white crayons on black paper to draw our bones
• Color and cut out picture of food and put on a MY Plate printout - http://www.choosemyplate.gov/print-materials-ordering/graphic-resources.html

Math Activities-

• Body Bingo-see in picture. We use dice and person stencil to make a fun game.
• Make a chart of rainbow fruit and vegetables

 

Booklist

• The Berenstain bears go to the doctor / Stan & Jan Berenstain.
• The X-ray picture book of amazing animals / written by Gerald Legg
•   My body / Sally Hewitt, Angela Royston ; [illustrator, Chris Davidson]. 
• Burger boy / by Alan Durant ; illustrated by Mei Matsuoka.
• Oliver's fruit salad / by Vivian French ; illustrated by Alison Bartlett.
• I know how we fight germs / Kate Rowan ; illustrated by Katharine McEwen.
• Eat your peas / Kes Gray & Nick Sharratt.
• Healthy food for thought [sound recording].
• The big book of bones : an introduction to skeletons / Claire Llewellyn.

Field Trip:

• Papaw’s Emergency room

First things First, the AMBULANCE! We where able to get inside the cab and the back!

Thankfully there where no traumas in process because we where able to tour the trauma bays.

Papaw and his boys

And what hospital tour would be complete without a visit to the caesarian and some soft serve ice cream?

Mixing Primary Colors- Preschool Rainy Day

With two boys, we are very tactile here in our lessons. Here are some fun ways we learned how primary colors mix. No color wheels needed, just early hands on learning. As your chidlren get older, you can teach the true circular flat color wheel , but this concrete knowledge will only add in their abstract knowledge of the color wheel.

Red +Blue= Purple

We had already been playing in the water table (bus tub from Sam's filled with water). Decided to fill two small bowls, one with red food coloring and the other with blue food coloring. Then I gave them some medicine syringes to each add colors to the plain water.

Yellow + Blue= Green

We did some finger-paints inside a Ziploc (make sure it is really sealed). Started playing first with the yellow, then after 5 minutes added blue.

Red +Yellow = Orange

As we studied Fire Fighters, we decided to paint some fire. I only gave them red and yellow. Just using finger-paint and brushes, we painted flames and as painted we talked about how they combined.

Creating a Print Rich Enviroment for your Preschooler

Some items in our house for a print rich environment include:

• Familiar books children can “read’ from memory
• Kid Picture Dictionaries
• Word Wall near paper and pencil (the children an copy) Use this wall to display from the unit you are learning about or things that truly interest your children. It doesn't have to be fancy, just legible kid friendly words & pictures.
• Reading area with soft pillow and basket of familiar books
• Books on CD
• functional print labels

Functional Print

Functional Print gives your child a reason to read and is a wonderful addition to a print rich environment. What better reason to read than to find than to find their new Iron-man toy? Providing a picture along with the print also attaches meaning for your child to those "squiggly lines" you call letters. Functional Print really helps with responsibly as your child learns everything has a place when they cleanup.

Drawer labels are especially important to one of my sons, who are fiercely independent. He loves to know which drawer has what so that he can pick out his own clothes and help mommy with laundry. My suggestion for font is Comic Sans. It resembles the handwriting your child will mostly likely use the most. And my labels are NOT fancy. They are just printed on normal paper and stuck on with Scotch tape. I used contact paper on the draws because i knew they would be more permanent. Don't get caught up in feeling like it has to be pretty, just worry that your child can read it and understand.

PARENTING HINT: This is also a wonderful way to make sure laundry gets put back into the right drawers…even if it;s your spouse you are trying to direct ;)

Community Helpers: Garbage Collectors

Preschool Homeschool-

Garbage Collector Unit Study

We walked around our neighborhood counting/graphing dumpster & trashcans.
We have several small family restaurants near us so finding dumpsters wasn't too hard.

We made a list of the helpers we wanted to learn about when we first discussed community helpers at the beginning of the year. Garbage Collectors were far and away more exciting to the boys than me. I even planned on skipping them, when the boys both drew garbage trucks on my birthday card...and then asked for trash trucks for Christmas. Through this study I was able to see again how much more children really learn when the subject is based on their true interests.

Book List 

• I Stink!
• Trashy Town
• A Day in the Life of a Garbage Collector (Community Helpers at Work)
• Here Comes the Garbage Barge!
• Garbage Collectors (In My Neighborhood)

Circle Time Discussions-

• What would happen if we didn’t have garbage collectors in our city?

Alphabet Activities- T for trash

• Make Tout of items you find yin your yard (sticks, leaves, rocks)
• Trace T in dirt
• Dot Markers on letter T

Science Lessons:

• Recycling
• Sanitation/cleanliness-germs in trash can make us sick
• rotten- observe old fruit

Field Trips:

• Our own back yard on Trash pick up day.  The boys love watching the big truck come
• Recycling Center in our town- We saw many old TV's, computers, and tree branches recycled at the recycling center
• Walk around neighborhood counting dumpsters and trash cans

Art:

• recycled art- make caterpillars from old egg cartons
• Color, cut, label and glue truck, trashcans, and dumpsters to community helpers map.
• Print Garbage truck coloring page.  Have children cut scarps of paper, then glue onto top of truck.
  
  

Math-

• Patterning- with cut out dumpsters and trashcans
• Take a walk around neighborhood and graph dumpsters and trashcans
• Use pattern blocks to build a trash truck
  

Community Helpers: Firefighters

 



Preschool Home School- Firefighters Unit Study
We spent the biggest time of our community helpers on the fire fighter study, probably because to four year old boys, nothing beats a fire fighter! We found the key to this study was the field trip to a real fire station at the beginning of our unit. Nothing is cooler than sitting the driver's seat of a fire truck, the firefighters were very welcoming to our homeschool group, which consisted of ages 1 and half to 10 years old!Circle time 

Discussions-

• What would happen if we didn’t have firefighters in our city?
• Why do we have so many fire stations in one city?
• What kind of Uniform does a firefighter wear? During this I drew a firefighter in full turnout gear and we labeled his uniform and tools after our field trip to the station (mask, belt, boots, etc)

Word Wall

• Fire
• Fire Truck
• Fire Hat

Computer Skills

• www.sparky.org Really fun and free site with several fire safety games!

Safety Activities:

• Identify shapes of room while drawing a map of house. Use this map to make Fire Escape routes. We printed out pictures of our home family and used them like paper dolls to run drills.
• Practice Stop and Roll

Song -Stop, Drop and Roll (tune of Frere Jacques)

If my clothes
Should catch on fire,
I’ll stop, drop and roll,
Stop, drop and roll.
I’ll put out the fire.
I’ll put out the fire.
I won’t burn.
I won’t burn

Science/Math Activities:

• Get a blankest out and pretend crawling under it like it is hot smoke
• Go on a hunt for all the smoke alarms & fire extinguishers in your house ,then graph them! We also visited my husbands’ work to see how many smoke alarms they had, then added it to our graph
• Fire Needs air-While observing a burning candle, the kids can learn that fire needs air to breathe, grow and burn. Cover the burning candle with a clear jar so the kids can see that the fire will extinguish itself once it has no air.

Field Trips

• Fire Station
• Husband’s office to graph smoke alarms and see their second story emergency escape ladderThis is a fire fighter at the station showing us how he uses his mask. We were bale to watch him put on his turnout gear to teach the kids all the tools the firefighter's have.

Art Activities

• Make hoses out of paper towel rolls; Tape two rolls together to make long hose. Color paper blue then cut draw lines for the children to cut fringe (this is your water). Tape the fringed paper on end and VOILA, you have a water hose!
• Panting with red & yellow finger paint to make fire- discuss how it makes orange.

• Make smoke alarms by using a white paper plate and add wiggly eyes, a nose, and cut out a mouth. Pretend this is a smoke detector and use it as a mask to sing the following poem/song.

Song-Always Alert

I’m a smoke detector and I say “Beep”.
(squat down)
I’m your nose when you’re asleep.
(point to nose then pretend to sleep)
If there’s a fire and smoke is all around,
(wiggle hand and fingers around)
I’ll wake you up with a very loud sound.
(jump up and raise your hands high)
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

FireFighter Picture Book List

• Curious George at the Fire Station by Margret and H.A. Rey's

• Curious George and the firefighters
  by Margret & H.A. Rey
• Dot the Firedog by Lisa Desimini
• Fighting Fires by Susan Kuklin
• Fire Engine Man by Andrea Zimmerman
• Firebears: The Rescue Team by Rhoda Gowler Greene
• Firefighters to the Rescue! by Kersten Hamilton
• Fireman Smallby Wong Herbert Yee

• Fire! Fire! Hurry! Hurry! by Andrea Zimmerman
• The Fire Fightersby Sue Whiting
• Firefighters!: Speeding! Spraying! Saving!by Patricia Hubbell
• Five Little Firefightersby Tom Graham
  
• Even Firefighters Hug their Moms by Christine Kole MacLean
• Stop Drop and Roll (A Book about Fire Safety) by Margery Cuyler a
• Big Frank's Fire Truck by Leslie McGuire
• Several other non fiction picture books that we found at our library

Community Helpers:Orchards Farmers/Autumn

Preschool Homeschool:AUTUMN/HARVEST/ORCHARD FARMERS Unit Study

Discussion Questions:

• How are orchards different from farms?
• How to

Word Wall

• Apple
• Tree
• Grape

Science Lessons/Activities:

• SEEDS,
• 4 seasons
• life-cycle of a plant
• what’s inside of a pumpkin,
• Pumpkins grow on vines, apples grow on trees…why?
  

Field Trips:

• Pumpkin Patch
• Apple and Grape Orchard
• Lots of Nature Walks

Art/Craft activities-

• Apple Stamping,
• Pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin bread,
• Leaf rubbings
• Finger-painting with red and yellow to make orange
• signs of autumn collage after nature walk to collect leaves and other signs of Autumn
• Seeds Collage (gather from fruits and walks outside)

Math- Patterns with colors and sizes (leaves, sticks) and shapes, and numerals

Orchard/Autumn Picture Book List

• Ten Red Apples
• Fletcher and the Falling Leaves
• Apples and Pumpkins
• Apple Pie Tree
• The Giving Tree

Community Helpers: Dairy Farm

Preschool Home-school Community Helpers: Dairy FarmerThis baby calf was only 3 days old!

For the next part of our farmer's study we decided to visit a different type of farm where they don'T grow vegetables, but take care of cows that give us milk.


 BOOKS

• Barn Sneeze
• From Calf to Cow (How Do They Grow?)
• One Tractor: A Counting Book
• Counting Cows
• Moo Moo, Brown Cow
• Moo, Moo Brown Cow! Have You Any Milk?

FIELD TRIPS 
I googled Local Dairy Farm and found a small one only 15 minutes from our house! Miss Becky not only allowed us to visit, but she gave us a tour around their dairy farm! Just goes to show you it never hurts to ask and many people are happy to help homeschoolers!

Miss Becky's farm is a smaller farm but still uses all the technology the bigger dairy farms use. Batman had the most fun playing with the dozen kittens running all around the barn!

CIRCLE TIME DISCUSSION

• What is Dairy and what food is it in?- We followed this up with several fridge hunts and talks over meals about what we were eating.

ALPHABET ACTIVITIES 

• Making C in salt on tray
• Use Corn kernels (cow's food) to make letter C for Corn and cow
• Dot Markers for letter C
• 
  

SENSORY ACTIVITIES

• Use latex gloves with holes to "milk" water, over our senory table
• Sensory table fill with corn kernels and  Jumbo Farm Counters 

ART

• "Painting with milk"- white paper on black contruction paper
• Color, cut, glue, and label dairy farm elements onto our Community Helpers Map

Community Helpers:Grain&Vegetables Farmers

Preschool Homeschool Community Helpers; Vegetable Farmer Unity Study

BOOKS

• Farmer Duck 
• Big Red Barn
• The Little Red Hen (Little Golden Book)
• This Is My Tractor

CIRCLE TIME DISCUSSION

• What kinds of farms are there?(this is good to keep discussing over meals later about what we eat)

1. Vegetable and Grain Farms
2. Fruit Orchard
3. Dairy Farm
4. Animals Farms

FIELD TRIPS

Real Farm
If you can track down a real farmer, visit them!  Ask on facebook for friends who are related to farmers. We found most farmers are excited to share what they do with us! We were able to see the large yellow combine he uses for the fields, then also ride on this smaller antique red combine in actions! Farmer Randy takes it to tractor shows!

Farmer's Market
Find a farmer's market near you and take the kids with you to buy ingredients for your dinner that night.  Depending on their age, let them help prep some items; husk the corn on the cob, clean potatoes, prep green beans, etc.

ALPHABET ACTIVITIES

• Do A Dot Art! Markers  on Letter F for Farmer or Letter C for Corn 
• Use Corn kernels to make a letter C 
• Trace letter C in cornmeal

 ACTIVITIES

• Take corn kernals off a dried out Corn Cob
• Sensory table filled with corn kernels and little farm vehicles
• Husk corn on the cob for dinner, notice how each kernel has it's own piece of silk  attached to it

ART

• Print tractors and corn plants to put on your big community helper mural
• Use dried corn cobs as roller for painting

May contain afflliate links. Does not cost you anything, I just receive a small percentage of your purchase.