Exploring Careers in Preschool
People may think, “Why ask a three-year-old what they want to be when they grow up?” Or, “They are just babies, let them be kids first.” The way I see it is, why not do both? You can still let kids be kids, expose them to future careers and even do it while learning and playing. Since becoming a HirePaths ambassador, I have really delved into my preschool curriculum and looked at how I could tie careers into our day. Let me explain a few of the ways I did that.
The obvious areas are the dress-up and dramatic play areas. Kids are allowed to dress up and play make-believe in these areas. They can role-play careers. The kids love to play in this area, but sometimes they didn’t have enough background knowledge about a particular career. So we helped the kids research a career. We watched videos, took a class field trip, or had a guest speaker come in and talk to us. After that, we discussed different tools that were used in the career, and we decided to make them ourselves out of scraps. We then put the tools in the dramatic play area. The kids love using them correctly and had a better understanding of the careers they were role-playing.
Another way I changed my teaching came during Fire Prevention Month in October. We had firefighters bring their truck and talk with us about their career. The kids were able to sit on the fire truck and try on the gear, and the firefighters answered questions. The kids really enjoyed this experience. I decided to add to it and create a “touch-a-truck” night. This allowed kids of all ages to come to the school and look at different career vehicles. We saw a tractor, police car, fire truck, electric vehicle and ambulance. The kids were again able to climb into the vehicles and ask questions about the careers of the people who drive them.
The final big area we changed was our thematic unit that involved a dramatic-play lemonade stand. Normally, we just practice it in our classroom, but we decided to take it one step further by practicing taking orders, counting money, pouring lemonade, etc. Then we set out our stand at pick-up time so parents could purchase a lemonade from us! It was so much fun, and the kids learned a lot from that one experience.
Not only did I look at how to incorporate careers more thoroughly, but I also posted to social media more. I was able to show parents, family members, community members and others some of the things we are learning in preschool. I was also able to show them how we tied lessons to different careers, and hopefully they went to the HirePaths website and read more about what careers we were demonstrating. But more importantly, I hope we opened their eyes to the importance of careers.
Thank you, HirePaths, for allowing me to take this Ambassador journey. I look forward to sending more parents and other educators to the HirePaths website and to showing them all the wonderful things it has to offer!
Lesa Schulte is a preschool educator in Ness City, USD 303, and is in her 13th year of teaching. She recently switched to special education, which allows her to co-teach with the regular education preschool teacher. Now, Ness City has an all-inclusive preschool, and Ms. Schulte absolutely loves it! Lesa was the 2023-2024 Midwest Energy HirePaths Teacher Ambassador. Being an Ambassador has allowed her to show others the importance of play-based career exploration, even at a young age. When Ms. Schulte is not at Little Eagles Preschool, you can find her with her husband and two kids, often fishing at the lake.
