This week’s Academic Spotlight shines on Early Childhood teacher Ms.Jessica Garner and her creative way of helping students learn about community helpers. Ms. Garner noticed in past years that many students didn’t know what jobs their parents had. This year, she invited parents to share their occupations and was amazed by the variety, including firefighters, auditors, tattoo artists, and medical professionals.
Inspired by the parent response, Ms. Garner organized the first Early Childhood Career Fair. Students rotated through stations where they took blood pressure readings, used tools, practiced hairstyling, received temporary tattoos, brushed a set of fake teeth, kicked soccer balls, and explored a real bus.Even the school’s speech and language pathologist, Mrs. Ashley, hosted a table to explain her role to curious students
One student, Emierc, admired his new purple hair and said, “This is amazing!”
Ms. Garner said, “This activity exceeded all my expectations. Students learned about new careers in a safe setting and were excited to participate. We always look for ways to keep students active and engaged, and this event fits perfectly with our Kansas Early Learning Standards.”
Ms. Garner also highlighted how amazing the families are of our early childhood student:
“We’re so grateful for our early childhood families. Working with them is one of my favorite parts of this job, and we hope to make this an annual event.”
Students and parents shared how much they enjoyed the experience:
“The event is awesome because it gets kids excited about a career path. I never saw this before, and it was planned so well,” student Lucas Bauer said.
“The event went amazingly. We had a ton of fun, and all the kids did such a great job waiting their turn,” Parents Steven and Porscha Cradic said.
“My favorite job was the soccer coach,” a student named Bennet said.
“I wish the bus could have driven us around!” another student said.
“My grandma, mom, and dad are bringing a bus to our building!” an excited student named Oliver said.
As you can tell, the students had a wonderful time exploring careers and learning about what people do in their jobs.Thank you, Ms. Garner, for creating such a fun and meaningful learning experience for even our littlest of lions!