One of my favorite memories at Como Public Library was
Community Helper Day. All the little first graders from Como Elementary would
file into the library for a tour. Activities included throwing things in the
book drop (always fun), scanning books to make the beep, and pushing the book cart
around. They left with a book bag filled with coloring sheets, crayons, candy,
and a library card application.
At the time, Como Main Street included the police
station, firehouse, city hall, library, doctor/dentist office, restaurants, and
bank. You could watch the little ones centipede to each building and wave at
the helpers who greeted them smiling. It felt like an important day.
Cloverleaf books’ Community Helpers series,
published by Millbrook Press, uses a unique author/illustrator combination to assure
uniformity. Half of the eight books were written by either Gina Bellisario or Bridget
Heos. The four illustrators have two books to their credit and are Cate
Atkinson, Mike Moran (no relation), Ed Myer, and Kyle Poling. All illustrators obeyed
a round, long, or triangular face rule and maintained the same color pallet.
These picture books all begin with Let’s Meet a … followed
by the corresponding helper. Helpers include a construction worker, dentist,
doctor, firefighter, librarian, police office, teacher, and veterinarian. Since
there are eight, teachers can read two a day for four days with a tour at the
end of the unit.
The series format is uniform and includes three
chapters, an activity, a glossary, and further readings. The chapters for
Librarian are “The Spy,” “No Shushing Allowed!” and “A Computer Wizard.” The
activity is finding a book and the glossary has words like catalog, e-book and
troubleshoot. The further reading section suggests the website kidsclick.org.
I particularly like the Construction Worker book. They
are building a new school for the children complete with a playground. Oh, but
that is in the future. Right now it is a mound of dirt where they can play "King on the Mountain" wearing fake-plastic orange construction hats.
The activity is to construct a graham cracker house
using peanut butter. What a mess! I would read this book in the afternoon and
reserve the activity for close to last bell. A little less messy would be to hand
out blue construction paper and let them draw up blueprints for the house using
chalk.
Don’t forget we look up to you, community helpers. After
reading this series, you will have even more admiring eyes.
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