12 Compelling Community Books for Kids {with teaching ideas!}

Are you teaching a community theme in your classroom? You’ll love this list of related books!

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1. Clothesline Clues to Jobs People Do By Kathryn Heling and Deborah Hembrook: Use the clothing clues on each page to guess each job in this fun interactive book.

2. Whose Hands Are These? By Miranda Paul: This is another great guessing book about community helpers. I really like that this one has some different jobs that aren’t usually included in many books on the topic such as scientists and potters. This book is also helpful for building vocabulary as it uses words like “physicians” and “architects.”

3. When I Grow Up By Al Yankovic: Little ones will totally relate to the main character in this story as he describes what he wants to be when he grows up. His dreams range from snail trainer to pickle inspector and everything in between. Love that this book pushes kids to dream big and that they don’t have to pick the same old career as everyone else (i.e. doctor, lawyer, police officer, etc.)

4. A Day in the Life of… (series) By Heather Adamson: This series is my favorite for introducing the jobs of 14 different community helpers (police officer, firefighter, farmer, nurse, dentist, doctor, EMT, veterinarian, teacher, zookeeper, construction worker, child care worker, librarian, and garbage collector. Each book describes the job and all that it requires in simple easy to understand language perfect for beginning readers.

5. Career Day By Anne Rockwell: Another great book for introducing some different jobs to your students. The class is this book is having a career day and all of their family members come to share their jobs which include a judge, crossing guard, paleontologist, and more!

6. ABC Jobs By Roger Priddy: This book is PACKED with information about 26 different jobs. From an airline pilot to zoo keeper, each page is written from the perspective of the person describing what their job is about, the skills they need and the the people they help. I especially love all of the labels for teh uniforms, tools, and vehicles that each job requires.

7. Whose Hat is This? By Sharon Cooper: If your kids loved Clothesline Clues to Jobs People Do and Whose Hands Are These? then you definitely have to check out these next two books. In this book learn all about the different hats worn by construction workers, police officers, firefighters, and more.

8. Whose Tools are These? By Sharon Cooper: And in this book learn all about the different tools used by doctors, hair stylists, lifeguards, and more.

9. Helpers in my Community By Bobbie Kalman: This is a nice short and to the point book with great real photos to introduce different community helpers.

10. Community Helpers from A to Z By Bobby Kalman: Here is another ABC book introducing 26 different jobs that you may want to check out, there is some overlap with ABC Jobs, but lots of new and unusual jobs too like, agricultural workers, recycling workers, and more!

11. Let’s Meet a… (series) By Bridget Heos: The fun cartoon characters in this 8 book set make it a fun way to learn about construction workers, librarians, veterinarians, teachers, police officers, firefighters, dentists, and doctors.

12. Delivering Your Mail By Ann Owen: This book is great for young readers with short sentences, and simple illustrations. Learn the different jobs of mailmen, their routes, about safety around mail trucks, and more.

If you are still a little overwhelmed trying to decide which books to use and what skills to practice, I am taking all the guesswork out of that for you!

I created this Community: Read & Respond resource to go along with 5 of my favorite fall books above. It is the perfect way to strengthen comprehension and writing skills along with some fun craftivities to keep your kids engaged! And all of the activities are differentiated for K-2 and Common Core aligned.

Make connections and practice opinion writing with Career Day By Anne Rockwell.