Do you teach a community helpers theme in your preschool or pre-k classroom? A community helpers theme can help you teach children about the different people who live and work in their communities and the important jobs they do. As your kids participate in literacy center community helpers activities around a common theme, they will begin to develop important oral language, literacy, and vocabulary skills.
You can help your kids celebrate all the different types of work that people do in your community by extending the learning into your literacy center activities.
Community Helpers Preschool Literacy Activities
Your kids are going to love these fun, hands-on community helpers activities and games that will help them build vocabulary and develop critical emergent literacy skills like rhyming, syllables, beginning sounds and more.
Here are just some of the helpers you might want to include in your community helpers preschool theme:
- Construction Workers
- Librarian
- Teacher
- Custodian
- Sanitation Worker (garbage truck)
- Veterinarian
- Doctor
- Dentist
- Mail Carrier/Postal Worker
- Fire Fighter
- Farmer
Community Helpers Beginning Sounds
Are your students learning to identify beginning sounds? Beginning sounds are an important part of developing phonological awareness skills. In this activity, students will identify the beginning sound of each picture and add a stamp with the corresponding sound to their envelope. The beginning sounds activity is available in the Community Helpers Bundle.
Community Helpers Alphabet Matching
Are your students learning to identify and name the letters of the alphabet? This game can be played 3 different ways; your students can practice matching upper to uppercase, lower to lowercase, and upper to lowercase letters. The alphabet matching activity is located in the Community Helpers Bundle.
Community Helpers Syllable Activity
Are your students learning to identify syllables in spoken words? Syllables are an important part of developing phonological awareness skills. In this activity, students will identify and say the name of the picture, and clap number of syllables in each picture. This activity includes a black and white recording sheet and is available in the Community Helpers Bundle.
Community Helpers Rhyming
Do your students need practice with rhyming words? Rhyming is a crucial component of the phonological awareness continuum. This fun activity invites students to “send” letters to the correct rhyming mailboxes. You can find this activity in the Community Helpers Bundle.
Community Helpers Vocabulary Cards and Chart
Are you looking for vocabulary word cards for your community helpers unit? The printable word chart and vocabulary cards are available in both black and white and color. Place the printable word cards in a pocket chart or on a word wall. These cards can be used to help develop vocabulary and can be found in the Community Helpers Bundle.
Community Helpers Pocket Chart Sentences
Are your students learning concepts of print? The predictable text in this pocket chart set will help your students learn concepts of print such as left to right directionality, return sweep, one-to-one correspondence, and more. The printable pocket chart sentences are available in the Community Helpers Bundle.
Visual Discrimination
This set of visual discrimination mats will help your little learners understand the difference between upper and lowercase letters, letters vs. numbers, curvy vs. straight lines, and letters in their names. There’s also a black and white version in the Community Helpers Bundle for you in case you want to turn it into a cutting and pasting activity.
Community Helpers Printable Readers
Are you looking for printable emergent readers for your community helpers preschool theme? There are three different community helper booklets in the Community Helpers Bundle. The predictable words in these books are designed to support your beginning readers. Use these books to reinforce concepts of print such as words are separated by spaces, left to right and top to bottom, written words match spoken words, common sight words, and more. These easy to assemble, printable readers are offered in both black and white and color for your convenience.
Community Helpers Read and Write around the Room
Are you looking for a fun activity that will get your kids up and moving around the room for a purpose? This fun read and write around the room activity is available in the Community Helpers Bundle.
Community Helpers Books
Oh, and you’re going to want some good, age-appropriate books to read aloud to your kids for your community helpers theme! Don’t worry, I’ve got your back, you can find a huge list of community helper books for preschool HERE.
More Community Helper Resources
