Large Group Literacy: Community Helpers

What I Want to Be When I Grow Up
This is a sentence chart activity.  Something that I use that I haven't talked about are turn sticks.  Turn sticks are craft sticks with a decorative top to them.  You can buy sets of these from teacher stores or you can make your own.  Some teachers choose to have a set with each student's name on a stick to pull, I prefer just to hand them out.  They give a great visual to you immediately of who has had a turn to speak, and who hasn't.  The decorative piece gives the students who have had a turn something to fidget with as they learn to wait politely for others to take their turn.
With this sentence chart, I do it the first day.  Bold, I know, some students aren't fully aware of different job types.  Our first book introducing the topic that morning is Community Helpers A to Z.  I place this book along with alphabet community helper flash cards placed on the floor for students to browse and identify jobs if they haven't already thought about what job that they'd like to have when they grow up.
During nap, I type up this list and post it on our classroom website for parents to review and feel involved in the learning process.

How Do I Look?
Using markers, stickers, fabric swatches, and more, students decorate a black and white print-out of their picture.  Students enjoy doing things that are all about them, and to decorate themselves pulls in those students who have been shying away from the art area, watch as they actively work on this project.

The House That Jack Built Big Book Reading
I use the copy illustrated by Pam Adams because it has each character hiding in the pictures for each page.  I have each student take a turn finding the characters as they're introduced on each page after we've read through the story as our transition to the next activity.

Write a Letter to Me!
I give students a full piece of paper to color, decorate, and more with color pencils.  Once they've finished with their paper, I place them into their corresponding pre-addressed envelope.  Take these envelopes to your front office and have them stamped to send off to the students.  Students love asking their parents if mail has come for them and it really makes an impact on them when they do get their letter from themselves at home.  This activity also helps the office staff to keep track of student addresses for zoning purposes so we know who we need to get in contact with when their letters are returned to the school.

Machines That Help Us

This is an activity that I use after we read Discovery Kids: Machines That Help.  I plan this last near the end of our time spent on Community Helpers.  We've talked about people and jobs, but we have technological tools that also support our daily lives from microwaves to car to dryers and more.  I enjoy this class chart because it is an easy way to grab assessment notes on the indicator of understanding technology and the affect it has on our daily lives.


This looks pretty sparing for the two weeks that I teach community helpers for but when I plan for guest speakers, I try to plan for them to come for Large Group Literacy.  It is usually later in the day making it easier for guests to plan to come to the school.  Also, guest speakers are times where students are required to exercise their listening skills and communication skills through discussions or dialogue.  You can send home a questionnaire towards the beginning of the school year to learn what jobs class parents have and if they'll be willing to come and discuss what they do with the class.  When scheduling guest speakers, contact potential guests two to four week prior to when you would like them to visit your classroom.  When booking, try to allow them to schedule which day and time will work.  Granted, you can let them know when nap time is because nobody wants to engage with cranky children.  When you plan these visits out around their schedule weeks prior to, it still gives you flexibility to write your lesson plans around their visits.
Can't get parents to come out to the classroom?  They're busy too and that's okay!  I send home this parent involvement sheet to give all parents the opportunity to share what it is that they do with the class.  Students enjoy reading the jobs of their parents and their peers in this parent-made book. 

Large Group Literacy: Autumn

I'm a Little Scarecrow Rebus Reading 
Rebus is the art of using pictures to represent words.  As pre-k is filled with pre-readers, we do not expect for our students to come to us ready to read at the beginning of the school year.  We can start teaching them decoding skills with rebus charts.  Allow students to attempt deciphering the rebus chart before you read it to them, echo it with them, and read it together.

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves retelling with props
So you have already introduced the story of the old lady who swallowed a fly, bring her back out.  Be consistent to have the same old lady prop and where you store her.  Students will begin to recognize the old lady book series and they can retrieve the old lady prop as you discuss what items will be needed to perform the retelling.  Engage the students in critical thinking, what things will the old lady eat in this story.

Fall Word Web
A word web is a graphic organizer format.  In the center of your paper, draw a circle with the topic word inside of it.  In this case, we would write "FALL".  You can have some lines connecting the main topic word to smaller topic circles; I use "sports", "holidays", and "weather".  Around those smaller circles, students can suggest fall centered sports, holidays, and weather to write freely.  Anything that fits with fall but outside of those other topics can be freely written around the paper.  Try to use student suggestions but leave a book about fall, I recommend Who Loves the Fall by Bob Raczka, for students to turn through the pages and provide additional suggestions to offer for the word web.

Favorite Color Leaf Graph
You will note that graphs will be happening frequently in my Large Group Literacy planning.  This is a time for students to practice writing their name while expressing their opinions and preferences in a guided manner.  There are leaf cutouts on red, yellow, green, and brown paper glued across the top.  I hold up a student name card and hand them the name card, a pencil, and a post-it.  The student may return to their space on the carpet to attempt copying their name to their post-it before placing it under their preferred leaf color.  I usually don't pass out these items to more than four students at a time to avoid from the graph area becoming too congested with traffic.  Once this is finished, we can count to find the totals for each leaf color reviewing numerals before assessing which had most, least, or were the same.

Fall Word Journal Writing

This is an activity that I use to really introduce what my expectations are of using the word cards within our classroom writing area.  I use the word cards found at Pre-Kinders, there are cards for a variety of themes paired with images.  Students open their journals to any page, I never stress finding the "first blank page" within the pre-kindergarten environment.  I select the large word cards and display them on the interactive whiteboard for all students to view from their carpet.  I display one page for three minutes directing students to try and copy their favorite word or picture from the screen.