How to Teach Career Awareness in Kindergarten

Her future is not that far away.

Kindergarten might seem too early in a child's education to begin learning about different careers, but it actually isn't. A child's interests early in life, such as art or music, can become the foundation of later, deeper understanding and even lead to a career. Exploring the topic can also help to demonstrate to children that specific subjects like math, science and reading are important because someone must master them to become a doctor, scientist or astronaut.

Instructions

1. Use visual representations to give children a clear picture of the careers you will be covering in your lesson. For example, create cutouts of people engaged in different occupations and add hook-and-loop backing to each one. Ask the pupils to move the cutouts on a felt board under a general heading like “Medical” or “Business” or something more basic like “Helps people.” Use this exercise to get students involved in a discussion about what a career is, why exploring careers is important, and why a grownup may choose a particular career path.

2. Develop worksheets that help students understand what each career you present entails. For instance, create a worksheet asking students to draw a line between a picture of a person in a particular uniform with another picture that shows a duty or job requirement of that particular career. This will help children better understand what each career is about.

3. Ask the pupils to draw, create a collage or even make a puppet of a person with a particular career. A child could choose the career of a family member or one he might like to pursue when he grows up.

References

• Career Learning Exploration Network; Career Exploration and Planning; December 2003