Research Process

Directions

Scenario

One Monday morning, boys and girls walk to the bus stop. Ms. Jones, the crossing guard, helps them cross the street safely. When the school bus arrives, Mr. Smith, the bus driver, says "Good morning!" as they step inside. As they ride the bus to their school, they see the garbage collectors picking up their neighbors' trash and recycling.

Ms. Thompson, the principal, greets all the boys and girls at the front door of the school. Just as always, their kindergarten teacher, Mr. Matthews, smiles when he sees them come in their classroom, ready to start a new week.

Each of the adults which the boys and girls have seen on their way to school is an important worker in their neighborhood. There are many kinds of workers in every community, and each worker has an important and interesting job to do.

Click here to learn about a veterinarian.

 

If you could spend a day helping a worker in your community, which kind of worker would you choose and why?

Task  

We will learn about six kinds of community helpers:

• letter carriers
• fire fighters
• police officers
• doctors
• teachers
• librarians

We will explore an online resource to locate information about community helpers. Then we will use the information we found to make a special project.

Product 

After we have learned about the workers, we will choose one we would like to help for a day. We will imagine what our day with the worker would be like, and we will create a song about it. Then we will make a poster to go along with our song.

Assessment

Click here for your project checklist.

Questions

If you could spend a day helping a worker in your community, which kind of worker would you choose and why?

We want to answer these questions about our worker:

• Where do they work?
• What work do they do?
• What can you see at their workplace?
• What can you hear at their workplace?
• What would you like to help them do?

Gather

Click here to visit a website about community workers.

Organize

Now it is time to write your song!

When you have finished your song, create a poster about helping your community worker.  Don't forget to put your name on your song and your poster.

Conclude

Presentation

Listen carefully as everyone shares their song and their posters with the class. Think about all the different workers in the songs, and all the different ways they help their community.

Reflection

Explore these questions with your teacher:

• What did you learn about community workers?
• How did you choose your worker to research?
• Which of your classmates' songs did you enjoy? Why?
• Discuss the work of the students' parents, family members, and friends.
• Discuss the jobs you might like to do when you grow up.