Caleb's Community Helper Days

On Wednesday, October 9, Caleb's preschool class celebrated "Community Helpers." Each child was asked to dress up as a favorite community helper or worker. Back when Joshua was in school, I had borrowed a fireman costume from a friend for the day. But, alas, Caleb is bigger than Joshua was at this age. One of the ideas that came home from his teacher was a chef, and since Caleb LOVES to help in the kitchen (and because we already have a chef apron, hat, oven mitts, etc.) that's what we went with. There were fire fighters, a police man, several doctors, a few construction workers, one mail man and a couple that I wasn't sure what they were. :)

It was hard to get a good photo with the odd lighting in the room and the reflective gear on the fireman costumes, but these were the best ones I took.

After the class photo, the children split into four different stations to do their preschool "work." Below, Caleb is painting with a marble in a box lid. He's painting splatter onto a firefighter hose with Mrs. Weaver.

He also completed a project at Mrs. Wenger's table - something in their books, which you can see his buddy working on below. I think it was their alphabet letter of the week.

Eliza's Mom Angie was there to help that day as well, and she was at another table, helping with a different fireman craft. The students had already put their hand print on the paper and it had dried, so they were adding the blue glitter paint to the hose and writing "Fire fighter" in their best handwriting.

At my table, the children were working on writing the number four (4). Some kids did this easily (like Caleb) and some struggled through and never did write a single one. It's always interesting to me to see the differences in children even at similar ages. When they were done with the activities, they were allowed to have some play time before heading out to various stations throughout the school to see actual community helpers.

The first station we went to was a nurse. She was very informative and gave the kids each a band-aid "sticker." She talked about bones and muscles and boo-boos and ways to prevent germs, but all in a language the children could understand. Afterward, we headed outside to see the police officers. Here's the line up, listening to the female police officer in Manheim Township.

She described the uniform they wear and how police officers are safe. I was surprised at how much their uniform weighed when it was complete with weapons!

She also let the kids look in her car.

I loved this picture of Caleb below. It was so nice to be with him at school and be able to show him how much I care about him (thanks, Mom, for watching Ryan for me so I could go!).

Here's Caleb's friend Josiah coming out of the car. I took one of each class member, but I won't share them all here.

After the police car, we moved over to the officers with horses. I thought their presentation was the most interesting of the day (personally). The officer described how a horse can get through a crowd faster than a car, so they will escort ambulances. The reason is that people won't move for cars because they know police men won't purposefully hit them. BUT, people don't inherently trust animals and will scoot out of the way for them. Interesting!

After listening and asking as many questions as they'd like (and these kids can ask some useless questions!!!), they each got to pet the animals if they wanted to.

When we were done with the horses, we went in for potty breaks and to wash our hands. Then the kids got a snack.

After eating, we went to the next presentation of the firemen. He suited up for them and reminded them to get out when there's a fire, have a place that you meet your parents in an emergency and not to hide from firemen or to think they are scary because they are just helpers trying to reunite children with their families. You never go back into a burning building for a favorite toy or even pet. You get out and you get safe!

The kids got to give the full suited fire fighter a high five! I'm continually impressed with how fast these fire fighters can get suited up in all that gear! It weighs a ton!!!

From the inside fire fighters, we went to the outdoor fire trucks.

We listened to a very short presentation on fire trucks and some of the differences of them, but it was time to get back to the class. I read a book as Mrs. Weaver dismissed the children individually. The book was super cute on what a child pretended to be as his mom was asking him to help her. He was a garbage collector, a police officer, a doctor, etc. It was adorable! I love imaginations at work! Caleb and I had had a fun morning together!

I love getting to go to preschool and meeting the boys' friends and seeing their interactions and what they're doing in school. I am blessed to have the opportunity!