Free Community Helpers Preschool Lesson Plans
Whether a doctor or a construction worker, preschoolers are very interested in the helpers in their community! We’ve put together the best free community helper preschool lesson plans, including science/STEM ideas, art and sensory exploration, and literacy activities. You’ll find all the community helper lesson plan activities at the end of this post in a free download.
Free Community Helper Activities for Preschoolers
Preschoolers love learning about community helpers! From their uniforms to their vehicles, helpers in the community are fascinating. Learning about community helpers is a real-life way for kids to learn all about the helpers in their neighborhood, city, or country and learn respect for the jobs people do.
Preschoolers understand the term – being helpful. As Mr. Rogers once said,
When I was a boy and would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’
Mr. Fred Rogers
A community helper theme is an important theme to learn because community helpers are often brave and courageous people who work hard to help us stay safe, healthy, and good citizens in the community. When we spotlight these hard-working people, we model for our preschoolers how to be good friends and helpful citizens in the classroom and at home.
These free preschool community helper lesson plans are sure to help you plan your community helpers unit! We’ve included lots of fun activities through hands-on fun.
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Product on sale* Learn At Home Preschool Lesson Plans BundleOriginal price was: $60.00.$22.00Current price is: $22.00. -
FAQ About a Community Helpers Preschool Theme
You may have a few questions about teaching this preschool theme! Check out these frequently asked questions for how to teach your preschoolers about community helpers.
Preschool classrooms are all about community and friendships. It’s important for preschoolers to learn that there are helpers in their community who can help keep them safe and protected. It also helps children feel connected to each other and the world they live in.
Community helpers have an important role in our neighborhoods and cities, so it’s important to allow children to brainstorm essential jobs. Many roles include doctors, construction workers, nurses, chefs, firefighters, teachers, police officers, farmers, delivery drivers, and more.
Children love to pretend and learn through dramatic play. Incorporate community helpers in your dramatic play centers and create a post office, a fire station, or a hospital. Incorporating preschool crafts using community helper printables keeps learning fun and engaging too!
Important Info About These Community Helper Lesson Plans
These lesson plans for preschoolers are just one theme in a set of over 40 that will become a part of my free Learn At Home Preschool Lesson Plans.
The Learn at Home Preschool Lesson Plans is a set of free lesson plans you can use to teach your preschooler at home.
Each set of lesson plans is centered around a weekly theme and includes a minimum of 16 activities that can be done throughout the week. They are designed to be done at home with parents, but many preschool teachers are using these lesson plans, too!
Just glance over the lessons each day, gather the very few materials needed, and you’re ready to go!
All the preschool learning activities are quick and easy to set up, requiring very little (if any at all) prep and only require the most basic of household materials. This makes them especially easy for parents to implement…and this makes preschool teachers happy, too!
These activities also work wonderfully in the classroom, and if you’re a preschool teacher who is remotely teaching you can send these lesson plans to your student’s parents.
Engaging Preschool Activities for a Community Helpers Theme
We have included the most important content areas in preschool in these free community helper lesson plans. They include literacy activities, math and science activities, sensory and art, safe online activities, as well as other playful learning activities. Read all about them below.
Literacy Activities for a Community Helpers Preschool Theme
Community Helpers Emergent Reader – Print out the community helper emergent reader book. This emergent reader book includes sight words for tracing over and practicing reading the repetitive text. The sight words included are: I, can, be, a. Each page has a picture of a community helper and the words, “I can be a _____ with the helper’s occupation. Plus, each community helper can be colored!
Community Helpers Letter Sound Mats – These community helpers-themed beginning sounds letter mats give students a fun way to practice recognizing and isolating beginning sounds. Using magnet letters, invite your preschooler to say the beginning sound for each picture. Then find the magnet letter that makes that sound. Place it on the picture! You can also cut these pictures out and place them around the house or classroom and go on a sound hunt!
Community Helpers Picture Books
One of the best ways to teach preschoolers about any theme is by hand-selecting the highest quality picture books! This is a book list for our best-loved picture books for a Community Helpers theme.
- Hardcover Book
- Paul, Miranda (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- Katz Cooper, Sharon (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 24 Pages – 12/31/2005 (Publication Date) – Picture Window Books (Publisher)
- Books, Mlouds (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 40 Pages – 02/14/2024 (Publication Date) – Independently published (Publisher)
- Kalman, Bobbie (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 24 Pages – 01/15/2010 (Publication Date) – Crabtree Classics (Publisher)
- Edwards, Clint (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 32 Pages – 07/31/2013 (Publication Date) – Capstone Press (Publisher)
Math and Science Activities for a Community Helpers Theme in Preschool
Construction Worker – Sorting and Fitting Nuts and Bolts – Select an assortment of nuts and bolts from the tool store and have the children match the nut with the correct bolt. Students can also order them by size or height.
Community Helper Math Games – With just dice, game markers, and the printed game, these fun math games are perfect for a quick counting game.
Engineer a Garbage Can – Using cardboard, paper, tape, glue, and any other materials, invite your preschooler to design a garbage can for picking up trash in the neighborhood. Cut up little pieces of paper to fill the can and ensure that it is solid and ready for use!
Playful Preschool Learning Activities for a Community Helpers Theme
Build a Fire Station – Using Legos or wooden blocks, invite your preschooler to build a fire station, complete with an opening/garage for the fire truck and an area for the firefighters to sleep while they are working.
Cardboard Car Ramp – Grab that leftover cardboard box and design a racing ramp for toy cars. Use a marker to draw lines on the road and see whose car makes it to the bottom first!
Pipe Cleaner Fine Motor – Using a kitchen colander and some pipe cleaners, invite your preschooler to feed the pipe cleaner through the holes in the colander. Encourage them to try to get it all the way through to the other side!
Social-Emotional Activities for a Community Helpers Preschool Theme
How Can You Be a Community Helper? – While learning about all the different jobs in our community, it’s important to be able to reflect on how we can be helpers too! Invite the child to think about ways that they can help out around town. Perhaps they can donate no longer needed toys, clothes, or shoes to a local charity. Or they can drop by a fire station and bring cookies or treats to say thank you. Encourage your child to think of their own clever ways to help in the community and invite them to make it happen!
I Can Be Anything – Go to YouTube and read the story, Why Should I Help? by Clair Llewellyn. This book highlights the importance of being a helper in your family even when you just don’t feel like it. Susy soon learns that her family is always doing things for her, even if they are tired or busy. Susy decides to help people too because it gives her a good feeling inside. Invite your child to come up with a list of ways they can help at home or at school. What are five things they could do to be helpful to their friends and family?
Just Plain Fun Community Helpers Activities for Preschoolers
Community Helper Crafts – Print your favorite community helper on cardstock, color, and cut! These community helper people are a great way to learn about each helper’s role in the community.
Community Helpers Puzzles – Match the 12 different community helpers by their work outfits. Great for helping preschoolers recognize a helper in uniform.
Community Helper Coloring Pages – Practice coloring and building fine motor skills with these tracing and coloring pages. Invite your child to choose the community helper they believe is a real hero in the neighborhood!
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Product on sale*** Daily Lessons in Preschool Mathematics CurriculumOriginal price was: $135.00.$99.00Current price is: $99.00.
Get Online Activities for a Community Helpers Theme
Online Story – Go to YouTube and listen to the story, Whose Hat Is This? by Sharon Katz Cooper. After listening, discuss with your preschooler: Do you know anyone who has one of these jobs? What community helper job would you choose? Can you think of any other community helpers in our neighborhood that keep us safe or provide a helpful service?
ABC Occupations Video – Help your preschooler learn 26 different careers and helpers with this fun song and video.
Heroes in Your Neighborhood, Sesame Street – Elmo reminds us who our real-life heroes are in our neighborhoods!
Make Your Community Helpers Theme Even Better!
These community helper toys and extras are perfect for helping your preschoolers practice pretend play and take on the role of their favorite helper. I’ve picked some of our favorite community helper toys that we love to use with our preschoolers.
Get Your Free Community Helpers Lesson Plans Here
Want to include these Community Helper preschool activities in your lesson plans? Ready to grab your free printable lesson plans with all these Community Helpers theme activities for preschoolers?!
I’ve made a printable for you! Just fill out the form below and the community helper lesson plans will be sent to your inbox.
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I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
