Activities for elementary students
There are numerous simple home activities that you can use to increase your child's career awareness.
Use everyday household tasks to show your children how the skills they are learning in school relate to real life. Some examples include:
- Paying bills;
- Buying groceries;
- Sending birthday cards and letters;
- Getting appliances repaired;
- Shopping for clothing; and
- Organizing family trips.
Help your children learn about time management. Create a "work" record for your day and ask your children to create a similar record for their school day. You and your children can then compare your days and look for similarities and differences. Use the record to plan and figure out how to include new activities. Your children will want to be as detailed as they can be about their days. For example:
6:30 - Wake up
6:35 to 6:45 - Eat breakfast
6:45 to 7:00 - Get dressed, comb hair, brush teeth
7:10 to 7:30 - Walk to school
7:40 to 8:00 - Get organized for first class
8:00 to 8:30 - Sharing circle
8:30 to 9:30 - Math
9:30 to 10:00 - Recess
... and so on through the entire day.
Have your child interview you about your own school and career experiences when you were young. Your child might ask:
- What were your favorite school subjects?
- What did you like to do with your free time?
- What career did you think about when you were young?
- Did you follow your dreams? Why or why not?
- What did your parents want you to do?
- Who helped you make your education and career decisions?
- What did you learn in school that helped you the most?
- What is your favorite thing about the work you do now?
- What do you like least about the work you do now?
- What did you learn in elementary school that you use in your work now?
- What did you learn in elementary school that you use in your home life?
Here are some more formal activities you can do with your children:
"Me" Bag
This activity will help your children increase self-awareness and their awareness of others and learn a vocabulary for describing self and others.Me, Myself, and I
This activity let's your children use imagination and creativity to increase self-awareness through journaling and develop a vocabulary for describing themselves, their interests, and their preferences.My Occupation Coloring Book
This activity let's your children use imagination and creativity to increase self-awareness and knowledge of the world of work. They will learn to identify some personal characteristics, interests, and preferences as well as identify some common characteristics of occupations.Career Alphabet Book
This activity will help your children increase their career awareness and learn a vocabulary of occupations and work activities.Picturing Skills
This activity helps build career awareness by developing a vocabulary of occupations and skills. It also develops photography skills.Kids and Chores
This activity helps build self-esteem and a feeling of competence. Your children will also begin to develop good work habits and a positive attitude about work. They will also learn that there are certain jobs that just have to get done - that they are a normal part of life.Helping Hands
This activity builds helping skills and teamwork.Decisions, Decisions
This activity will help your child understand the importance of decision-making and practice a model for making decisions.Talking, Watching, and Listening
Use these techniques to develop language, listening, and thinking skills and to increase awareness of self and others.
If you help your child think and talk about careers from an early age, you
can contribute greatly to his or her future success.