1st Grade Careers Lesson

We are starting a new lesson in first grade today. We are learning about careers! We'll read a book called What I Do Best by Allia Zobel Nolan. The children in the story will share their talents with us, and we will guess which careers they might have when they grow up. For example, one of the characters in the book says she is good at taking care of her pets, so we will brainstorm animal-related careers like veterinarian, zookeeper, pet store employee, etc.

Then, the students will become the "authors" as they each write and illustrate their own page highlighting the talents they have now and careers they might like to have in the future. Look for that sheet to come home with your first grader!

One of my main goals is to help students see that there are many jobs that relate to their talents and interests, not just one. For example, one of the characters in the book says he is good with computers, so we'll talk about not only working with computers in an office, but also fixing broken computers, manufacturing the computer parts or building things out of them, working in a computer store, designing websites, and creating computer games or software. For the character in the book who says he is good at sports, we'll talk about not only playing sports, but also coaching, writing newspaper articles about sports, being a commentator, doing math with sports statistics, and taking sports photographs or video.

My intention is for our students to start seeing that their future career goals and aspirations will likely be related to both their talents and things they like, and to get them thinking beyond the typical careers they already know about to the variety of opportunities open to them. Of course they do not have to choose a career now and they will probably change their minds many many times over the years, but it is never too early to start making the connection between their school work, talents, interests, and careers that appeal to them!

I will see Childers, Ray, Durrett, Brown, Turner, Dockery, Thomas, and L. Foster's classes this week. All other first grade classes will take place next week.

Thanks for reading! We are glad you are here.