1. Introduction.
Speak to children about what a police officer is and what they do. Teach the students about how they help the community and fight crime. Make sure to teach the children that police officers are good and children should not be afraid of them. Make sure to reintroduce 9-1-1 and speak about safety and strangers. The below link has articles and even some great free stuff related to teaching children about police officers!
http://www.askacop.org/articles.html teacher resource
http://bensguide.gpo.gov/k-2/neighborhood/policeofficer.html kid friendly, what does a police officer do?
2. Read a book.
The Police Cloud by Christoph Niemann
A Day at the Police Station by Huck Scarry
Big Mike’s Police Car by Leslie Mcguire and Joe Mathieu
I Want to Be a Police Officer by Dan Liebman
My Police Car by Dina Anastasio and Luana Rinaldo
The Berenstain Bears Learn About Strangers online book found at http://www.berenstainbears.com/theater.html
http://teacher.scholastic.com/commclub/officer/index.htm online book about polic officers
3. Coloring.
Have child color picture of the letter P and teach the child that the word Police Officer starts with the letter P. Below
Also a great crime safety coloring book can be found online at http://www.sandiego.gov/police/prevention/crimeprev/cpbook.pdf
4. Crafts.
Choose a police officer craft to do with the children. Several crafts can be found in the links below:
http://www.first-school.ws/activities/commhelper/policeofficer.htm
Print out police badges for the children with their names on it! Enter children’s names, print out the badges then allow them to color their very own police badges. Help the children cut out their creation!
http://teacher.scholastic.com/commclub/officer/form.asp
5. Fun with shapes and colors.
Have children learn about shapes and colors with the worksheet below.
6. Fun with fingerprints!
Teach the children that no two fingerprints are alike…not even siblings, twins, mother & daughter, etc. Have children learn about fingerprints from the below link. The link includes an FBI fingerprint chart to print out so that the children can create their own fingerprints!
http://www.fbi.gov/kids/k5th/whatwedo2.htm
7. Song time, Finger play & Dramatic play
Great site with finger play activities for not only police officer but firefighter, postal worker & health professionals!!
http://www.hummingbirded.com/community-helpers.html
8. Making a book.
Finish up the lesson by having the children look through magazines to find anything police officer/safety related. Allow them to cut and paste these pictures onto Police Officer Pictures Page. By the end of the unit the children will have various collages of community helpers/workers that they can make into a book.