Community Helpers Unit in Spanish

The past week we began our community helpers unit, which I was SO excited about because it is such a relatable unit for our kids! Students get to learn about different community members and I've seen them make such amazing connections to their own lives, such as sharing what their parents do for a living, or how they've seen police/firefighter cars/trucks in their town and by sharing what they want to be when they grow up and how they will be community helpers as well! 

Therefore, I was excited to bring together different elements to teach/share with students about our community helpers in Spanish. I utilized Spanish nonfiction texts, videos, a song with a video, bubble maps, Important Words, student booklets, Venn Diagram activities, and a cumulative collaborative activity at the end of the unit. 

These are the books that I have found in Spanish and utilize for our community helpers unit:

Before beginning the unit I went over our learning scale (based on Marzano) and had students understand and try to verbally say what the learning goal was (which in a concrete sense was difficult for them to say the whole learning goal in Spanish, but they were able to verbalize who we were going to learn about and most of our Important Words for the unit).

We dedicated a day to each community helper and we focused on: Doctor, Firefighter, Teacher, Police, Vet and Chef.

First, each day we would go over our "Important Words":

Then, we would watch the video of "Las Profesiones" and try to sing along! This is a GREAT video because it has really beautiful visuals and words to sing along!

Then, we would read a book about the community helper and possibly watch a video. There were some great videos for firefighter in Spanish ("Sam el Bombero") and for police ("Caillou el oficial de polica") and a very catchy song about a vet ("Tio Mario Veterinario") and a Peppa Pig episode about the vet ("el veterinario volador"). I must warn you - the Tio Mario Veterinario song is SUPER catchy and students have continued to ask me to play it for them everyday after I introduced it to them!!

Then, I would read our community helper poem, which provided a quick definition of what the community helper does:

Next, we would create a bubble map for that specific community helper together. Something crucial for a dual language classroom is VISUALS and so I had cards with each community helper's tools that I would tape up when a student said that tool. If students didn't mention the tool, I would show it to the class and have students recognize that tool. Here are our bubble maps:

 After we filled out the bubble map, I had each student fill out the respective community helper page in their own little booklet about community helpers. You can find this booklet in my Community Helper product!

Throughout the week I also incorporated various learning centers with this community helper theme. Here are some pictures of the students at work at those centers and engaged in activities that have to do with this theme, which they all really seemed to enjoy!!

 Math subtraction center using community helper's tools!

Writing community helper names in alphabetical order!

During guided reading I had students write down 4 things they learned about some of their community helpers and then illustrate the image in their notebooks! Here is one students example:

Students also put two of the poems in their Poetry Notebooks - the doctor and teacher poem! Here is one students notebook, where she illustrated both poems with amazing details!

  

 Also, during literacy workshops several students wanted to draw pictures of community helpers and they know the rule - if they draw they must write or label the picture to practice their writing! Here are some students' examples of their AMAZING drawings:

 Another student decided to go to our pocket chart and categorize the tools under the community helpers. I LOVE his concentration!

 I really enjoyed teaching this unit and working with students to learn more about our awesome community helpers! The kids really enjoyed it, especially because they were able to talk about what community helper they want to be when they grown up!

If you're interested in this unit, check out my Community Helper Unit product on my tpt store! The product is all in Spanish, with some parts in English as well!