Mini Lesson Plan: The Career Parade
All careers, old and new, are vital to the world we live in
Do your kids wonder where you are all day during the week? You could answer, “At work, of course!” But what does that mean to them?
What is a career, why do you need one and what exactly do you do? Join us as we explore these questions and much, much more!
Activity 1: Twinkle Trails Episode 12 — The Career Parade
The Career Parade is in town and the whole Twinkle Trails class is there for an excursion! These curious little ones spend the day celebrating the different careers that make our world go round!
What is a career?
A career is an occupation that a person works on for a significant period of their lifetime! Many people choose one career — like nursing or farming — and spend their entire lives doing that job!
In their chosen field of work, people earn money for the work they do; store owners earn money from the goods they sell, doctors earn money for treating injured patients and chefs earn money for the tasty food they cook! Using the money earned, we can pay household bills, buy food and clothes, or simply save up for a rainy day. Can you think of other ways to spend money?
If none of these jobs mentioned so far interest you, that’s alright! Many people have created their own careers and set their own paths, so can you!
Meet this young man who created a profession out of finger-boarding, which more people with similar passions have supported!
Activity: Guess my job!
Can you tell what these people do for a living?
Answers (Left to Right)
1st Row: Musician/Conductor, Chef, Nurse
2nd Row: Hairdresser/Barber, Farmer, Painter/Artist
3rd Row: Doctor, Firefighter, Waiter/Server
4th Row: Police Officer, Teacher, Construction Worker
Activity 2: Careers Lost in Time
As the world progressed, not all careers managed to stand the test of time. Here are some bizarre jobs that existed before you and I were even born!
1) Bowling Alley Pinsetter
Have you ever been to a bowling alley and seen that cool machine sweep the fallen pins away after every turn and magically set them up again? Well, it wasn’t always like that. In the past, after each turn, the pins had to be set up one at a time by young children.
Activity: D.I.Y. Bowling Game
Pinsetting may be one of the easiest jobs to revive in your own home or classroom! Set up a personal bowling lane at home, have a good bowling session with your little ones, and have the kids partake in manual pinsetting (assuming you don’t have a fancy pinsetting machine at home). Tennis and rubber balls work great as replacements for bowling balls.
2) Human Alarm Clock
Can you imagine waking up for work or school every morning all thanks to a man knocking at your window with a stick? This is what it was like before alarm clocks were invented! These workers were called “knocker-uppers”. They would walk from house to house knocking at windows with long sticks and shouting at the top of their lungs to make sure people would wake up and get to work on time.
Activity: Knock-knock!
Mix it up with a knocker-upper simulation with straws and paper windows!Cut out a rectangular piece of paper and draw a cross inside to create a window. Prepare two of these and paste them 120cm and 160cm up on the wall. It can be adjusted according to your child’s height.
Provide tape, scissors and roughly 10 straws for your kid to construct a long stick with it. Before they begin, let them guess how many straws it’ll take to reach each window. Allow them to figure out how best to build this stick to ensure sure that it is sturdy.
Here is our suggestion if they seem to be stuck: Squeeze the end of a straw and push it into the end of another then secure the joint with masking tape to make it more stable.
3) Ice Cutter
Before fridges existed, ice had to be harvested during the winter to keep things cool in the summer. This was of course an extremely dangerous job as the ice was cut from frozen lakes and ponds. Falling into the freezing water could potentially be fatal! With the emergence of technology, we now simply walk over to our fridge, open up the freezer, and voilà, we have ice!
Activity: From Frozen Lakes to Homes
Ice cutters used to transport blocks of ice back to their towns on sleds.
Challenge yourself to create your own mini-sled! Here’s a step-by-step guide to making one at home!
Careers on the brink of extinction
With all the advancements in technology, jobs that exist right now may not exist 30, 60 or 100 years into the future! Self-driving cars are being developed and are predicated to hit the roads by 2040. Does this mean that taxi drivers or bus drivers will be obsolete in the future?
Circle Time!
Can you think about more jobs that can be replaced with technology? Possibly police officers being replaced by robots? Would that be for better or for worse and why do you think so?
Activity 3: Careers Around the World You Won’t Believe Exist
Having an unconventional career will surely raise some eyebrows when telling others that this is what you do for a living. Have you heard of any of these unique (or weird) jobs before?
1) Professional Mermaid
That’s right, you heard me — a professional mermaid! Look at how beautifully and elegantly she moves in the water. It’s mesmerising! Who would say no to a job as awesome as this?
Activity: Mermaid’s tail
Simply draw and cut out the shape of a mermaid’s tail, decorate it, then use duct tape to secure it to a sock. Don’t forget to add some glitter!
2) People Pusher
Tokyo is home to the busiest train stations in the entire world. People pushers known as Oshiya help move crowds along by squeezing commuters into trains where they are packed like sardines.
Activity: Magic Carpet
You will need a 8' x 8' piece of paper or tarp for this activity.
Let’s go on a mental voyage together. Seeing how packed the trains are in Japan, all of you have decided to take the magic carpet instead. Everyone must stand on this magic carpet completely before it can take-off.
Congratulations! When everyone has managed to get on, the magic carpet will begin its journey!
3) Dog Surfing Instructor
At the Loews Coronado Resort and Spa in San Diego is where Teevan McManus works as a dog surfing instructor. Facing the vast and beautiful ocean everyday while being surrounded by dogs, what could be better?
Activity: Dream Job!
All the careers that we’ve explored so far are important and rewarding jobs in their own way but here’s a little fun fact: you don’t have to choose yours from a fixed list. In this activity, you get to define your own career path!
Draw your dream job on the templates provided! Explore your hobbies and interests, and decide what you would like to do when you grow up! Afterwards, you can even have a little show and tell session to share about your dream job with your peers.
Click here to download the printables above.
Here are some prompting questions that might help!
- Does your job have a name?
- What kind of clothes would you wear at this job?
- What will you be doing at work daily?
- Where will you work?
Activity 4: Pick a Job You Love
It is said that if you choose a job you love, you will never work a day in your life! With the mountain of choices available in this Mini Lesson Plan alone, it can feel daunting to pick one. Luckily, there are tools to help us make this decision!
1) Kidzania
KidZania offers a wide array of exciting real-life simulations. Be a dental assistant and learn about dental hygiene! Become a painter and get imaginative in an art studio! Put on your firefighting hat and put out large fires!
In 2016, we had an interview with the General Manager of KidZania Singapore, where he shared more about the happenings there. Read all about it right here on our blog!
You can also click here to find out more about the activities KidZania has to offer. Tickets are available online so you can start planning your next outing!
2) Role Playing
An alternative to KidZania is roleplaying from the comfort of your home or school! This can get your kids’ creative juices flowing as they experience setting up props and coming up with different scenarios.
Some benefits of roleplaying include engaging cognitive thinking, improving literacy and building up social and emotional skills. Read more about it from a highly informative article linked below!
We’ve scoured the internet for some exciting role play ideas to get the ball rolling!
Science Lab to feel like Albert Einstein
Experiment around with ‘chemicals’ (water dyed with food colouring) to come up with your very own concoctions.
Bonus: There are instructions on how you can make a safe, fuzzy foam to play with.
Pizza Restaurant to get creative with food
You’ll be running a full fledged pizza parlour: from taking the customer’s order to delivering the cooked pizza and everything in-between!
Hospital to help others in need
The kids will be exposed to medical terms and equipment as well as symptoms of some common illnesses that they can look out for in real life! They can practice patching up wounds on dolls or even on each other!
3) Career Bingo
The great thing about Career Bingo is that the boxes are checked off based on the descriptions of the different careers listed, making this game both amusing and engaging for the kids!
Full instructions on how to conduct the game:
Getting a job is an important aspect of growing up but that doesn’t mean our little ones can’t have fun doing it! Help them to believe in themselves and to confidently follow their aspirations! Share that positive outlook (and this article) with your fellow teachers and parents!
And stay tuned to our social media because we may or may not be planning to send you to Hawaii! We’re on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and Medium! (We don’t have the budget to pay for the trip, but we can send our friendliest Storyteller down to the airport to see you off.)
