Ayudantes de la comunidad en 1º Grado – Community Helpers in 1st Grade

In connection with their social studies unit on Heroes, the first graders have been learning the Spanish vocabulary for some "Community Helpers." In their homeroom, the students have been studying the community of people they associate as being heroes, someone they look up to and/or admire.

In a large group during Spanish class, we began the conversation about héroes and how they are not just people who lived long ago or far away. Some héroes live in our own comunidad that we can refer to as Ayudantes de la comunidad (Community Helpers). There are many different ayudantes de la comunidad and each play an important and helpful role in each town and city.

We first read Roger Priddy’s book, “ABC of Jobs.” This was an introduction to the Spanish vocabulary for some of our ayudantes de la comunidad. Because in Spanish all nouns have either masculine or feminine gender for grammatical purposes, the students practiced using the definite article to distinguish between genders. For example:

el bombero, la bomera –  male firefighter, female firefighter

el veterinario, la veterinaria – male veterinarian, female veterinarian

el cocinero, la cocinera – male cook, female cook

el maestro, la maestra – male teacher, female teacher

el cartero, la cartera – male mail carrier, female mail carrier

el granjero, la granjera – male farmer, female farmer

We also discussed that the nouns that end with –o are usually masculine and those that end in –a are often feminine. But, there are times when this rule does not apply and only the definite article (el, la) is our clue whether a noun is masculine or feminine.  For example:

el policía, la policía – policeman, policewoman

el dentista, la dentista – male dentist, female dentist

After the read aloud, the first graders explored with large-sized clip art representing some of the professions that impact the lives of others. The faces of the characters in the props were cut out and a mirror was taped in its space. This way when the students looked at the characters, they could “see” themselves in the role. All the first graders laughed themselves silly as they looked into the mirror and took turns at taking on a role. Stay tuned, as we continue to explore with this topic in many fun and interactive ways.