Website Archive - October, 2007
Spotlight on Social Studies Skill Development
Children
Here are some websites with online activities that promote social studies skill development for children to enjoy.
Fisher-Price
Little People Toys and Videos from Fisher-Price has a matching game Who’s at the Door? Children listen to a verbal description of a community helper and then match the description to one of two community worker choices. Choose the worker from a doctor, firefighter, construction worker, farmer or mail carrier.
PBS Kids
Try the Tarrytown Musical Puzzle from PBS Kids Jay Jay the Jet Plane home page. The musical puzzle is an interactive game where a child completes a puzzle of a Tarrytown scene while listening to Jay Jay the Jet Plane songs. There are 2 levels: easy which teaches shape recognition and hard which teaches spatial awareness. You can then download and print a coloring page of the puzzle.
StoryPlace Pre-School Library
StoryPlace Pre-School Library presents the theme of Firefighters, a fun site with an animated story and sing-along song, It’s Time to Fight a Fire. There is also an online activity to help Firefighter Fran choose the clothes she needs to get dressed as a firefighter.
Parents
Here are some activities and ideas to encourage social studies skill development for your preschooler.
DLTK’s Growing Together
DLTK’s Crafts for Kids has a My Community/My House section with craft ideas that you can do with your child (ages 2 and above) with the themes of Community Helpers, My Community and Where I Live. Most of the crafts can be done with items found around the house, such as toilet paper rolls.
PBS Kids
Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood has an activity for Building A Neighborhood with your child. You can use those “throwaways” from around your house to build a community with buildings, stop signs, tunnels and bridges found in a community.
StoryPlace Pre-School Library
StoryPlace Pre-School Library presents the theme of Firefighters, a fun site for you and your child. There is an animated story and sing-along song, It’s Time to Fight a Fire, an online activitiy to help Firefighter Fran get dressed, a take-home activity, a reading list and a parent activity sheet. Click on Other Themes and find similar activities for the themes of trains and wheels.
Scholastic.com
Scholastic's Community Club web page is an easy-to-navigate resource for you and your K-2 early reader to learn about community workers. Just click on one of eight community helpers, including a veterinarian, librarian, pizza maker, utility worker, mayor, police officer, firefighter, and pediatrician, to see photos and hear audio of that worker describing his or her job.
Teachers
There are so many websites offering resources on social studies skill development, and we’ve highlighted just a few. So check them out!
A to Z Kids Stuff
On A to Z Kid Stuff choose one of the Community Helpers, either the carpenter, chef, firefighter, mail carrier, or painter and the corresponding activities for each, including art, fingerplays/songs, learning center, math or snacks.
Comsewogue School District Kindergarten Class
Mrs. Stewart’s Kindergarten Class home page, part of the Comsewogue School District in NY, has lots of poems, songs and fingerplays, a book list, reading and writing activities, math activities, learning center ideas, and art activities all centering on community helpers. These include firefighters, doctors, postal workers, and nurses.
Everything Preschool
In their Community Helpers Theme area Everything Preschool has ideas and activities with songs and fingergames, art activities and projects, a book list, games, science activities and snack ideas all centering on community helpers and aspects of their jobs.
First-School Preschool Activities and Crafts
First-School has a Community Helpers theme page for preschool and kindergarten. There areactivities, lesson plans and resources with instructions and the materials needed for many community helpers, including a farmer, a firefighter, a librarian, a nurse and a police officer.
Gayle’s Preschool Rainbow
Preschool Rhymes for Community Helpers on Gayle’s Preschool Rainbow website contains fingerplays, poems and action songs to help preschoolers learn about occupations in their communities, including firemen, policemen and mail carriers.
Preschool Education.com
Preschool Education.com has arts and crafts, music and songs, science and sensory activities and snack recipes for the themes of community helpers, fire safety and transportation.
Ridgely Learning Community
Janeen McCarthy of the Springfield Public School District, IL., developed We All Live Together, a unit of ten lesson plans for kindergarteners that builds upon the previous lesson plan and incorporates social studies and language arts standards with the integration of technology. Through this unit children develop an understanding that people live in homes that are sometimes different but are part of a neighborhood. The neighborhood is a part of the city, and the city is an important place called a community. They also will explore helpers in the community.
[Posted on October 2, 2007]
