Including Parents Through Career Sharing

We strongly value parents in our program. We encourage volunteering and engage with them on a daily basis. However, some parents aren't able to volunteer, but would like to still contribute to the program. I was embarking on a new theme: Community Helpers and Transportation and knew that I wanted to include parents. My good friend, Jula from Redding Cooperative Preschool shared with me how she encourages parents to come in the class and share about their careers. 

I loved the idea and knew I wanted to incorporate it into our plans. She gave me a copy of her request form and I modified it to meet our needs. It encouraged them to come in to share about their career and to share any tools they use at their job. They would have 10-15 minutes to present and were able to choose the day they would like to visit. I was hopeful that we'd have some feedback. I was thrilled that we had 10 parents who were able to take time out of their busy schedules to come in to share with the kiddos.

We had a huge variety of careers shared with us: a server, a college student and mom, a nurse, an office assistant, a floor layer, a bread-man, and a cosmetologist.

 

We also had a school cafeteria cook, a law enforcement park ranger, and a fish biologist.

Ms. Wendy is a server and shared a menu, the daily changing menu board, and even set up a table where two kiddos viewed the children's menu and placed their order.  

Mr. Shawn shared about his job delivering bread. He showed us some of the racks he carries and passed a loaf of bread around for the kiddos to check out and we can't forget the stickers. Stickers are always a hit with this group.

Ms. Denyse works in the school cafeteria where our lunch is prepared each day. The kiddos enjoyed seeing the huge pot and gigantic whisk and spoon used to make the lunches.

Mr. Jeremiah is a law enforcement park ranger and shared about taking care of the environment in the park and about his job of protecting the animals that live there and the people that visit. 

Ms. Alex shared about her job as a nurse. She brought in a variety of the tools she uses and her very own patient and let our friends try taking care of the patient. The more hands-on the activities, the more the kids loved it!

Mr. Kevin is a fish biologist and brought in several fish mounts, tools used for tagging the fish, and some of the equipment he wears while in the water. We took the water wear outside and the kiddos got to try on flippers, masks, life jackets, and waders. So much fun!

Thank you so much to all the parents who participated in our career sharing. We were so blessed to have so many volunteer and such a variety among them.