Community Heroes: Pre-K 5/K

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​Ana's Week 

I always love doing a community heroes week during the week of September 11th each year because that week always brings to my mind how grateful I am that we have so many amazing heroes in our country who sacrifice their lives daily to save us from harm. My dad and stepmom lived in NYC at the time of 9/11, and I found out on that day when my dad called my school to say that he was okay that my dad was supposed to be in a building that got hit by one of the falling two towers but his meeting was cancelled last minute. Each year, I say a prayer of thanks that he is okay but I am also aware that if he were there, he would have needed the guidance of police officers and fire fighters who headed straight to those towers to help in order to find a safe place to go. Obviously, Aria is a little bit young to really talk to about the events of 9/11, but after this week she does understand how lucky we are to have people in the community who look after us and save us despite the danger.

Now, our main focus of the week was on fire fighters, partially because there were so many fun things that we could do related to fire and partially because after visiting the FDNY store in NY, Aria has been obsessed with all things fire. We have started our own co-op out of my home, and this week we added a new family to the fun, which was awesome! For co-op we set up an obstacle course so that the kids could practice preparing to be fire fighters. We also created a “save the magnetic letter” ladder game, a numbers rice box (big hit for the littles), a fire colored sand box for the kids to trace letters, several fire themed art activities, a “build a fire station” activity table where the kids could use recycling items or magnetic shapes to build a station, and one of my friends even brought a healthy snack that the kids could turn into fire trucks. The kids really had a blast with that, as everything is more fun with friends. The next day, while Skylar was in her preschool prep, Aria and I did more focused materials like worksheets and reading her readers, but this was a really fun day! We also made our own home safety video where she talked all about fire safety and getting in and out of the house in case of a fire. It was a good way to practice our home fire safety plan and make sure that it really stuck in her mind.

Aria responded really well to our police day, as I created my own crime scene that she had to wake up to and solve. This wasn’t easy, as there don’t seem to be any preschool level “crime scene” ideas out there, so I’ll tell you about what I did so that you can try it in your own home if you want to! I put 3 stuffed animals in “jail” (aka under a chair with bars on it) and she had to figure out which one stole the superheroes and dinosaurs out of their box. I used rice scattered on the floor to help her figure out they were hidden in the rice box and used cocoa powder to look like dirt. Then, I had the stuffed animal “step” in the dirt to leave footprints and left the dirt on the stuffed animal so it was easy to find. Aria loved it so much that she asked for more crimes to solve after rest time. So, during rest time, I had her Merida doll “eat” the porridge of her stuffed bears like the story of goldilocks (leaving pieces of oatmeal on her doll to find) and had her cat “steal” her favorite blanket and hide it in the dryer, leaving clues about the laundry room near the cat. Let’s just say, Aria loved the idea so much that she spent the rest of the day creating her own “crimes” for us to solve. Maybe I have a future detective on my hands?

The rest of the week we focused on heroes in the community who help keep us healthy. I chose this year to do doctor and dentist, though I realize that dentist is a bit of a stretch. However, I really wanted the girls to understand just how bad it can be if you don’t brush your teeth, so combining it with these other topics was nice because it made brushing your teeth seem extremely important or the situation might be dire! Both doctor and dentist day were a bit lighter schedules. I knew I wanted to do an activity day at the library on Tuesday, so we did a lot of hands on science and fine motor activities for dentist day before heading out. On Friday, I chose to do doctor day because I needed to clean the house before a friend from out of town came to dinner. The girls were able to play doctor with their stuffed animals while I cleaned and a lot of the writing and numbers worksheets I found are things Aria can do on her own now without my constant oversight. It’s nice we are getting to this stage! But I think it’s also important to think about your week in advance as much as you can when planning so that you know which days you can overload and which days you need a lighter schedule due to fun activities in the community or time with friends!

Anyways, I could probably spend weeks on this unit if I chose to do “community workers” this year, but “community heroes” was really great for Aria’s age. Plus, there were some important things that she is finally old enough to learn about safety that finally sunk in because of our safety focus! My big win of the week was teaching Aria how to call 911 or dad from my phone even if it is locked! Please tell me about any of your big community heroes wins this week and I hope you thoroughly enjoy this unit as much as we did!

Jessica's Week

Well, we drastically cut back our activities for community week in favor of a vacation to the Mother Earth News Fair with friends. Between our regularly scheduled fall activities ramping into full swing and the extra getaway we only had time to touch on this theme. Good books went a long way for us, since we were able to pack them and still get in some nightly reading. We also chose to copy an idea Ana had shared and make our own video. Since we’ve spent a lot of time reviewing fire safety in past years I chose this topic paired with a favorite book we read, “No Dragons For Tea”. Taegan LOVED reenacting the story and I got her to teach fire safety tips in four yr old fashion as well. The best part was sharing our video with family and friends knowing other children her age may get educated in the process. I’m so proud of my little actress and couldn’t resist sharing her video with you all too!
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Since our “movie” was a hit we expanded the drama to playing detective. I found a great set of “case files” and police ideas on Creative Family Fun (https://creativefamilyfun.net/lets-pretend-police-station/) and set up a few crimes for her to solve. Her favorite part was using our family dog Roo as a canine helper who sniffed out the stolen candy and directed her to a stuffed cat in need of rescuing from a tree. Her daddy and I took turns playing the bad guys and often ended up in handcuffs but T let us out of jail in time to make dinner so I guess we must have learned our lessons lol. 

Takeaway from this week, drama comes naturally to four year olds. Might as well harness the dramatic flair into something positive! 😉