A Visit From The Police

We started the day in morning circle talking about all the things that we might see during our super special visit from the police officer.  The kids had a lot of things to share....and as we headed outside we had lots of things to look for on our list!

Officer Wade was waiting outside in the parking lot for us.  He was dressed in his police uniform and the lights on his car were flashing.  We sat on the sidewalk while we talked about the ways that police help keep us safe in our community.  If you get lost, you can look for a police officer to help you.  Police keep people safe from the bad guys.  They can help direct traffic if there's an accident or a broken traffic light.  Officer Wade let us listen to his police radio.  It was hard to understand because police use a lot of numbers when they talk.  He let us look at his hand cuffs and see how they work.  He also showed us a bright yellow vest he wears if he has to stand in the road so that cars can see him.  After that, we headed over to the police car.  That was the definite highlight for the kids!  We looked at the front of the car where the word POLICE is written really big so that other cars will know.  We looked at the back of the car where there were some numbers to help Officer Wade know that it's his police car.  Then....he let the kids climb in the backseat!  There are bars on the windows so that even if you roll the windows down....the bad guys can't get out!  After everyone had a turn....and it took some convincing to get some of them OUT of the back of the police car.....Officer Wade turned on the siren.  He only did it in short little bursts so it wouldn't scare us, but it sure was loud. He explained that it was loud so that the other cars could hear it and get out of the way of the emergency.  Then, before he left he gave everyone a police badge sticker and a coloring book with crayons.  THANKS Officer Wade!  The kids LOVED the visit!

Our story today was Police, Hurrying! Helping! Saving! by Patricia Hubbell.  This is book all about how police officers help the community....and the kinds of transportation that they can use....and the things that they wear and have that let us know that they are the police. The kids were able to help us read the story because they had learned so much from the Officer Wade visit.

For art today, we had two special projects. The first was making our own police badges.  The kids took shiny gold paper and glued on white badges, then we glued that to some blue paper.  Police officers use the color blue a lot!  We wrote everyone's name on the badge as "Officer" and let the kids pretend to do some of the things that police do.

Next, we made license plates with each child's name on it.  The kids had to pick out the letters that they needed for their name.  We talked about how each car has a license plate....and that they are all different.  It helps the police know who is driving what car when they are out in the community trying to keep us safe. 

What a fun day!  THANKS again to Officer Wade for a great visit!  Tomorrow is another fun day...with a super fun visit to another community helper....the fire station!