Why People in a Community Work

Social Studies
Why People in
a Community
Work
Grades K-2
4300
Credits
Executive Producer
Susan Eikov Green
Producer
Christine Molino
Video Production
Mazzarella Bros. Productions
Bristol, CT
Writer
Matthew Reiniger
Teacher’s Guide
Ruth Grossman
© 2006 Sunburst Visual Media, a division of Global Video, LLC
ISBN 1-59520-690-6
Why People in a Community Work
Table of Contents
About the Program . . . . . . ...................................3
Learning Objectives . . . . . ...................................3
Program Summary . . . . . . . ...................................4
Discussion Questions . . . . . ...................................6
Suggested Activities . . . . . ...................................8
Activity Sheets . . . . . . . . . ...................................9
Suggested Reading . . . . . . ..................................1 5
Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 7
program running time: approximately 15 minutes
We highly recommend that teachers preview
programs before showing them in the classroom.
Why People in a Community Work
About the Program
Introduction
For children, the reasons people go to work every day can be a mystery. Children are
aware, of course, that the grown-ups in their family can have a job in an office, at a
retail store, in a factory, on a farm, or even in an office at home. But why the work is
both necessary and important often eludes them. Why People in a Community Work
is designed to give the youngest students an age-appropriate lesson in basic economics. Starting from the premise that work is a job people do, the program goes on to
show that people in every community work to earn money for their needs and wants.
Money is useful, viewers learn, because it can be exchanged for such needs as food,
clothing, and shelter, as well as for the toys, books, television sets, computers, artwork
and the like that comprise people’s wants. Using a simple vocabulary to define words
like shelter, trade, buying and selling a good or service, the program makes clear the
different jobs that people do. It salutes the helping jobs some workers—nurses, doctors, teachers, firefighters, mailmen, and others like them—provide to a community,
and also pays tribute to the unpaid work that volunteers do to help their community.
To extend the program’s scope and usefulness, this Guide provides questions for
discussion, suggested activities, reproducible activity sheets, and a list of books
suitable for Grades K to 2.
Learning Objectives
Viewing the program and completing the activity sheets will help students:
• understand that work is any job that people do.
• learn that people work for different reasons.
• recognize the difference between people’s needs and wants.
•
understand the uses of money in providing needs and wants.
•
define such terms as a good, a service, and volunteering.
•
learn about the many different types of work people do.
•
learn that people have different work preferences.
•
realize that when they grow up, they can be anything they want to be.
Why People in a Community Work
3
Program Summary
The program opens with a question from the narrator: what is work? His answer is,
work is a job that you do. “Why do people work? he asks. Let’s find out.” Noting
that people work for different reasons, he makes clear what these reasons are.
One reason we work is to earn money to buy the things we need and want. He
defines a need as something that keeps us alive. We need healthy food to give us
energy and help us grow, he says, and water to keep our bodies working. We need a
place to live—a house or apartment to shelter us. We need clothes to protect our skin
and keep us warm, as well as medicine to make us better when we’re sick. But all
these needs cost money, he adds.
Wants are things we don’t need, he goes on. What they do is make life better. He
lists a number of wants: toys, movies, computers, television sets, video games, and
even vacations. People work first of all for money for their needs, he says; then if
there’s enough left, they buy the things they want. But since we can’t buy all the
things we want, he says, we have to decide which we want most.
One way to get things is through trade. As the narrator tells viewers, swapping a
book you own for one your friend owns is a trade. Earning money is like trading.
A farmer trades his vegetables for money when someone buys them at his vegetable
stand. As the narrator explains, money is useful because it can be used to trade for
anything. Trading with money, he adds, is called buying.
Another reason people work is to help and care for the needs of people in the community. Nurses care for people who are sick. A teacher’s job is to help children learn.
A firefighter puts out fires and helps to save people trapped by fire. A postman delivers mail. A soldier protects our country and helps people when natural disaster
strikes. But there are also people who work out of love, the narrator tells viewers,
your parents, for instance.
Why People in a Community Work
4
Program Summary
He goes on to define some different ways people make money. A good is something someone sells, such as a glass figurine they make themselves. A service is
something someone provides—a haircut, for example—for money. A dentist who
cleans your teeth also provides a service. If you rake all the leaves in your grandmother’s garden for five dollars an hour, he says, you are selling a service, too.
Some grownups work in offices, the narrator tells viewers, using computers and
phones to work on all kinds of different things: helping customers, selling magazines, making airplane reservations, and the like. He asks: “Do your parents work
in an office?” He explains that these are services for which people like their
parents get paid.
There are also jobs grown-ups do but choose not to get paid, the narrator points out.
A volunteer might visit people in hospitals, for example, or teach people to read,
because he or she wants to help others. Volunteering to pick up trash in your local
park not only makes you feel better, the narrator tells viewers; it helps your community be a better place.
There are many types of jobs, says the narrator, because people like to do different things. While art, music and stories are not needs, he points out, artists supply
our wants and help us enjoy our world by painting, drawing, singing, making
music, and writing stories. Some people, he goes on, like to work by themselves,
others prefer to work with other people. Other ways people work are with their
hands or on the phone. Some people work for themselves, while others work for
someone else.
People have always worked to supply their needs, the narrator explains, but
today’s jobs are different from those in the past. Whether you are a boy or a girl,
he tells viewers, you can have any job you want. The most important thing to
remember, he tells viewers as the program concludes, is that you can be anything
you want to be.
Why People in a Community Work
5
Discussion Questions
1.
How would you define work?
2.
Do you work? If work is a job that people do, what kinds of work can
children do?
3.
What is the main reason people work?
4.
What is a need? What are the things people think of as needs?
5.
What is a want? What are some of the things you want? Can you have all the
things you want? Why or why not? If you had a choice, what things would
you choose to have first?
6.
What does it mean, to make a trade?
7.
Why is earning money like trading?
8.
When you trade money for something you want, what is it called?
9.
Many jobs in the community are designed to help people. Name some of these
jobs and the workers who hold them.
10.
What would you call something you buy that someone else has made?
11.
What is a service? How does it differ from a good?
12.
What do you call someone who works in your community but doesn’t get paid
for it?
13.
Have you ever volunteered to help in your family or your community?
Describe the situation and how you felt about your work afterwards.
Why People in a Community Work
6
14.
How does art—music, stories, paintings and drawings—help us enjoy our
world?
15.
What type of work do you want to do when you grow up?
16.
What’s the most important thing to remember when it comes to thinking
about your future?
Why People in a Community Work
7
Suggested Activities
Language Arts; Communication
Ask children to define what they think work is, and lead them in a discussion of
why people work. Ask, what are some of the needs and wants that children like
them have? Ask, what are some of the kinds of work that children like them do?
Invite them to discuss the work their family members do. Ask, are these the jobs
they would like to have when they grow up? If not, what jobs would they like?
Art; Language Arts
Provide children with old magazines and have them look through to find a picture
of someone working. It could be a child walking a dog, a farmer plowing, a doctor
examining a patient, a teacher, and so on. Have them cut out their picture and paste
it on a sheet of construction paper. Invite each child to make up a story about the
worker shown in their picture and recite it for the rest of the class. Display the
pictures on the bulletin board under the heading, “People at Work.”
Reading; Art
Read aloud to children the story, “Community Helpers From A to Z,” by Bobbie
Kalman (see Suggested Reading section), which describes the different jobs that
might be found in a community. Distribute sheets of white paper and invite
children to choose one job from their own community or from this book to draw a
picture of. Punch holes in all the pictures so that they can be bound together in a
book with the title, “Jobs in the Community.” Ask for volunteers to design covers
for the book. Keep the book in the classroom for children to look through when
they have time.
Language Arts; Creative Expression
Invite children to think about a job they would like when they grow up. Have them
write or dictate a short composition, “When I Grow Up,” about what they think the
job would be like and why they would like to work at it. If children wish, they can
read their composition to the rest of the class.
Why People in a Community Work
8
A Job I Do
Activity Sheet
1
Everybody has a job to do. What’s yours? Do you clean up your room, set
the table, walk the dog, clean the classroom chalkboard? Draw a picture
of you doing your job.
Why People in a Community Work
© Sunburst Visual Media, a division of Global Video,
9
Why Do People Work?
Activity Sheet
2
In the program, you learned about three important reasons people work. Write or dictate these reasons below:
Reason 1: __________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Reason 2: __________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Reason 3: __________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Why People in a Community Work
© Sunburst Visual Media, a division of Global Video,
10
Match-Up
Activity Sheet
3
Match the words to their definition.
Work
to exchange things with someone
Needs
things that make life better
Wants
something you do for someone
else
To Trade
a place for people to live
Buying
things that keep us alive
A Shelter
a job that you do
Why People in a Community Work
© Sunburst Visual Media, a division of Global Video,
11
Where I Live
A Service
Why People in a Community Work
Activity Sheet
1
trading with money
12
Which Is Which?
Activity Sheet
4
Here are pictures of needs and wants. Put a circle around those you think
are needs.
food
toys
medicine
water
television
clothes
house
bicycle
Why People in a Community Work
© Sunburst Visual Media, a division of Global Video,
13
Community Helpers
Activity Sheet
5
Here are pictures of some community helpers. Put a circle around the job you
think you would like to have when you grow up. In the space below, write or
dictate why.
Firefighter
Nurse
Soldier
Police Officer
Teacher
Doctor
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Why People in a Community Work
© Sunburst Visual Media, a division of Global Video,
14
Be an Artist
Activity Sheet
6
Art—writing a story or poem, drawing or painting a picture—is one of our
most important wants because it helps us enjoy our world. In the space
below, be an artist: write a story or poem, or draw a picture.
Why People in a Community Work
© Sunburst Visual Media, a division of Global Video,
15
Suggested Reading
Reading for Grades K to 2
Barton, Byron. I Want to Be An Astronaut. HarperTrophy, 1991. What it’s like to
fly into outer space, and come back to Earth.
Berenstain, Stan and Jan Berenstain. The Berenstain Bears and Mama’s New Job.
Random House Books for Young Readers, 1984. When Mama Bear turns
her quilt-making hobby into a business, the Bear family worries she will
no longer have time for them.
_________________ . The Berenstain Bears’ Trouble With Money. Random House
Books for Young Readers, 1983. Brother and Sister Bear find ways to work
for money, but they keep wavering between spending and saving it.
Bunting, Eve. A Day’s Work. Clarion Books, 1997. An appealing story of young
Francisco and his abuelo, his grandfather, as together they look for work
as day laborers.
Conrad, David. The Work We Do. Compass Point Books, 2002. Brief sketches of
a wide variety of occupations.
Early Start Careers. People at Work: A Student’s A-Z Guide to 350 Jobs. Jist
Publishing, 2005.
Kalman, Bobbie. Community Helpers from A to Z. Crabtree Publishing, 1997.
Describes the important jobs of the many different people in a community.
Liebman, Dan. The “I Want to Be…” Series. Firefly Books. This series introduces children to a number of occupations using concepts and terms
appropriate for beginning readers. Series covers such jobs as firefighter,
pilot, police officer, doctor, teacher, veterinarian, nurse, zookeeper, and
more.
Why People in a Community Work
16
Suggested Reading
Rey, H. A. Curious George Takes a Job. Houghton Mifflin, 1974. George’s
curiosity leads him to escape from the zoo and get a job, although he ends
up in the hospital.
Rosa-Mendoza, Gladys. Jobs Around My Neighborhood/Oficios en Mi Vecindano.
Me + mi Pubishing, 2002. In English and in Spanish, introduces children
to the different kinds of jobs they might see around their neighborhood.
Scarry, Richard. A Day at the Police Station. Golden Books, 2004. Bridget
spends a day with her father, Sergeant Murphy, and learns what an important job being a police officer is.
____________ . What Do People Do All Day? Random House Books for Young
Readers, 1968. This classic book for children examines the jobs people do
all day in Busytown.
Thomas, Mark. Work in Colonial America. Scholastic Library, 2002. An ageappropriate introduction to various jobs in Colonial America, including
those performed by blacksmiths, coopers, and shoemakers.
Zimmerman, Andrea and David Almesha. Dig! Harcourt, 2004. Mr. Rally and his
dog Lightning have a busy day ahead of them as they use a big yellow
backhoe to build a pool at the school and put in a drain for the rain.
Why People in a Community Work
17