Labor Day & Community Helper Lesson Ideas for Grades 1 and 2: The Teacher

Labor Day & Community Helper Lesson Ideas for Grades 1 and 2: The Teacher
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Introduction

Speak to children about what a teacher is and what a teacher’s job is like. Talk about how they teach many different age groups…even older adults can be students.

Reading

Read a book with your class about teachers. Choose from the following list or introduce your own favorite.

What Teachers Can’t Do by Douglas Wood

I Want to Be a Teacher by Dan Lieberman

A Day in the Life of a Teacher by Heather Adamson

You Know You’re a Teacher if…by Char Forsten, Jim Grant, and Betty Hollas

My Teacher’s My Friend by P. K. Hallinan

Coloring

Print an outline of a capital T for each child to color and decorate. Explain that the word “teacher” starts with T.

Capital T Outline

Cooking with Kids

Apples for the teacher –and students! Dip apples or apple slices in fun ingredients such as yogurt, peanut butter and sprinkles. Enjoy your delicious treat as a snack after lunch.

Fun with Numbers

Make a math worksheet by placing apple shapes on a page and filling them with numbers or basic math problems. Instruct the children to color all of the apples with a certain sum or containing a specific number red, green or yellow.

Apple Math Worksheet

Color the Apples

Craft

Make pencil holders as a teacher-related art project. Have kids decorate clean coffee can using paint, crayons, markers or stickers. Place holes in lid, big enough for pencils. Children can now have their very own pencil holder for their desks.

Learn a Poem

One Hundred Years from now (excerpt from “Within My Power” by Forest Witcraft)

“One Hundred Years from now It will not matter what kind of car I drove, What kind of house I lived in, how much money was in my bank account nor what my clothes looked like. But the world may be a better place because I was important in the life of a child.”

Make a Book

Finish the lesson by having the children look through magazines to find anything teacher related. Allow them to cut out and glue these pictures onto a Teacher pictures page. By the end of the unit, the children will have various collages of community helpers/workers that they can make into a book.

References

This post is part of the series: Community Helpers Lesson Plans: Units of Study for Labor Day

These series of lessons involve teaching students about Community Helpers such as Teachers, Doctors, Pilots, and Bakers! Plenty of educational material provided for free including alphabet worksheets, math worksheets, crafts, and recipe ideas!

  1. A Unit of Study Introducing Community Helpers
  2. Labor Day Lesson Plans: The Astronaut
  3. Activities for the Community Helper: The Baker
  4. Teaching Kids About the Community Helper: The Farmer
  5. Labor Day Lesson Plans: The Firefighter
  6. Labor Day Lesson Plan: The Police Officer
  7. Activities to Teach Kids About Doctors and Nurses
  8. Labor Day Lesson Plans: The Postal Worker Activity
  9. Airplane Lesson Plans: The Pilot
  10. Labor Day Lesson Plans: The Teacher
  11. Review Community Helpers & Hold a Career Day at School