Community Helpers: Activities to Teach Preschoolers about Life

So, you’re a preschool teacher. You want to educate your students on the community helpers who help make our society function, but you don’t know where to start.

Luckily, we’ve got a few activities for you that are both fun and educational. With a little bit of preparation, your students will be able to learn about firefighters, police officers, and other essential members of our community. Keep reading for details!

If you teach a “community helpers” unit in your classroom, this post is for you. Community starts at home and in early learning environments such as preschools and churches. Need a little boost to get started? This list of open-ended questions for kids might spark the conversation!

These environments are the first places where young children grow and learn within a group. Enjoy this post outlining community helper activities for preschoolers.

Community Helper Activities for Preschoolers – Building Community Early

One group of people that children find fascinating is the community helpers that you see throughout your neighborhood. Preschoolers are practically primed to notice these people and have lots of questions about them. You can draw attention to public service workers (among others).

This helps you educate children while building a sense of community around them. They’ll grow into that sense of community before you know it. There are many community helper activities for preschoolers that you can easily incorporate into your home or classroom.

What is a Community Helper?

Before we dive into community helper activities for preschoolers, let’s step back and think about the definition of a community helper. Below you will find a list of community helpers to provide a focus for community helper activities preschool children really enjoy:

Police Officers
Fire personnel
Garbage collectors
Mail and package deliverers
Utility workers
Soldiers
Janitors
Snowplow drivers
Game wardens
Animal Handlers
Dog walkers
Librarians
Coaches
Babysitters
Bus Drivers
Fishermen
Veterinarians
Lawncare personnel
Construction workers
Sanitation Workers
Recycling Truck Drivers
Plumbers
Farmers
Volunteers
Road crews
Taxi drivers
Crossing guards
Doctors, dentists, and nurses
Store Clerks
Teachers, of course!

This isn’t an exhaustive list. You may have other community helpers in your area. Once you’ve noticed them, you can help your child notice them as well.

This happens pretty naturally as a parent drives around town with the child watching out the window in the back seat. Perhaps you spot a police horse. Maybe they see window cleaners high on a tall building.

Don’t think that helpers have to be public servants. Some businesses may provide ideas for neighborhood helpers. Seeing a helicopter may prompt a discussion, and so can watching a person assist a disabled member of the community.

What is the role of community helpers in our daily life?

Community helpers are people who live and work right alongside the rest of us in our communities. Community helpers take care of us and play an essential role in our society.

So, you can understand the vital importance of teaching children about their role in our lives and the critical jobs they hold in our communities.

The Important Role the People Play in Our Lives

I can hear Mr. Rogers now as he takes his shoes off and sings, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” So vividly, the thought practically brings tears to my eyes. How can one person impact the lives of so many young children?

His message, especially this one, was always sincere, genuine, and full of kindness. Sesame Street resonates with the same theme with “Who are the People in Your Neighborhood?” with such sweetness and goodness that we have to smile and feel good about the idea of, and hopefully for most of us, the reality of “community.”

How to Teach Kids about Community Helpers

Such an important topic to bring home to children for a lot of reasons such as safety, thoughtfulness, and understanding of the way the world works (e.g., the mail doesn’t just magically appear in our mailbox, someone actually delivers it).

I try my best to permanently address the people in our neighborhood, wave, ask her name when possible, and generally try to show my children that they should feel safe and that these people take care of us.

These community helper activities you use can go far beyond a quick discussion in the car. It pays to take the time and test the waters, so to speak.

If you pulled off the side of the road and watched some local construction work going on, would your child be keenly interested? Or bored and restless? This is a good indication that this is a topic for you to bring up soon or shelve for another day.

Community Helper Activity Using Figurines

I was thrilled to see that Safari LTD created a “People” Toob, the perfect complement and tool to teach children about Community Helpers. So I jumped on the chance to own the Toob and use it for this very purpose – beginning the conversation about these community helpers, the people who take care of us. There are seven figures included in this Toob.

I added our Farmer from the Down on the Farm Toob (the detail on this figure is remarkable!) because I think that a person plays a crucial role in our community with a focus on eating locally and organically.

We’re lucky to be in an area near so many farms that grow food in healthy and sustainable ways for our environment. We are even luckier that we get to attend Farm School and visit these farms for pumpkin picking and harvesting.

My sons are in love with the figures included in Safari’s People Toob. Their imaginations are running wild with ideas to incorporate with their People. Heartwarming to see such a simple product inspiring them so much.

My 3-year-old is asking me more specifically about how a latter gets to our home, for example, and how the people know how to build the buildings, not to mention, “where do they take the trash, mama?”

List of Community Helper-Themed Ideas

I believe having real experiences and moving our bodies is the best way to learn. With that idea in mind, here are some hands-on, active ideas. You can build on the interest of children with everything from the most straightforward activity to something that requires a bit more planning and preparation.

These activities are perfect for preschool and kindergarten on how to get to know the people in your neighborhood and understand a bit more about how the world works:

Take a field trip to the firehouse
Take a trip to a local farm
Stop and watch a local construction site, study the machines
Write a thank-you note to a teacher
Visit a post office, mail a letter, create your own stamp
Watch the garbage and recycling trucks, then visit a local library or the internet to read more on the process
Find someplace to watch planes or visit a Museum of Aviation or Flight
Find someplace to watch trains
Ask to take a peek into the kitchen of a local restaurant
Next plane ride, ask for a peek inside the cockpit. Maybe if he or she has time, the pilot will indulge you and your child
Attend your community’s next “Safety Day.” Many communities host these events for children every year.
Coloring and drawing pages to spark conversation
Use toys of people who serve communities. This activity can be with figurines or with pretend play materials.
Visit community centers like the police station
Watch (from a safe distance) construction
Visit a working port with cargo barges
Ask people to visit your school environment and give a demonstration
Use learning websites that explore neighborhood helpers
Talk to and get to know neighborhood regulars like garbage collectors and mail deliverers
Set up a grocery store or post office at home or at school
Read books about helpers and workers
Make puppets
Set up an animal clinic with stuffed animals
Sing songs about community helpers
Create a community helper A to Z book
Make a community helper book
Create a Visual Aid to help your child understand how he is connected to the people in his community

More Community Helper Activities

To go along with your Safari People Toob, here are some wonderful activity links to celebrate the People in Our Neighborhood:

Fire Safety: Build a Firetruck from one of my favorite blogs, Teach Preschool
Animal Doctor: Set up your very own Pretend Play Vet Clinic by the adorable No Time for Flashcards
Recycling: Recycling sort activities are easy to do and go a long way in giving children lifelong skills.
Construction Worker: Construction Worker Pretend Play from Crayons and Freckles
Doctor: Doctor Pretend Play
Community Helper Stick Puppets with FREE Printables from First Palette. I can’t wait to do this one with my sons.
Make a Mailman or Mailwoman carrier toilet tube puppet with a free printable from Making Learning Fun

Some of these activities can turn into community building, like when you offer cold soda pop to the garbage collectors during hot weather. Saying hello to the mail deliverer demonstrates safe ways to talk to strangers. In addition, it offers service-oriented people as a resource for a child should they find themselves in an unsafe situation.

Children’s Books about Community Helpers

Career Day

Keeping You Safe: a Book about Police Officers

When I Grow Up

National Geographic Readers: Helpers in Your Neighborhood

The Berenstain Bears: Jobs Around Town

Clothesline Clues to Jobs People Do

Why Focusing on Community Helpers Is Important

Teaching your children about the many people who serve within your local community works on several levels. As a safety lesson, these activities prepare children to be actively engaged in their personal safety. Additionally, these people provide ideas for children who think about what they want to be when they grow up.

Children need opportunities to interact with the people in their environment and explore their world. Many of these workers have fascinating jobs! They all do important work to make the community safe, orderly, clean, and valuable.

You never know when community helper activities for preschool children may develop into a service project of your own concerning littering, animal safety, or anything else that catches the attention of your children.

Community helper activities for preschool children may be the beginning of a long-lasting love for service personnel and future job exploration. Boys and girls can see how they can serve the community. Their awareness grows, and this, in turn, helps them become better citizens later.

Community Helper Resources

Thank you for choosing to read this post today. I hope that we inspired you today.

For more ideas on how to get children connected & involved in their communities, please check out Service Projects for Young Children

Marnie