6 Ways To Help Children Learn More About The Communities Around Them

Teaching young children about communities is a wonderful opportunity to connect their learning with their everyday lives. Starting with the communities closest to them—their neighborhood and school—allows children to recognize their surroundings and build foundational knowledge. Here are practical ways to explore the communities nearby and expand their understanding of the world right outside their doorsteps.

1. Start With a Neighborhood Walk

Take learning outdoors with a guided neighborhood walk.

• What to Observe: Encourage children to notice landmarks, such as parks, stores, or houses, and discuss what makes these places important.
• Activity Idea: Have children create a checklist or sketch what they see, labeling key features they recognize as part of their community.

2. Investigate the School Area

Explore the community around the school to show how it serves the kids and their families.

• Ask Questions: What types of buildings are nearby? Are there services like fire stations, libraries, or grocery stores?
• Activity Idea: Use a simple map of the school area, and have children mark important places they’ve seen.

3. Introduce Types of Communities: Urban, Suburban, and Rural

Use the local area to begin explaining the three main types of communities.

• Relating to Children: Discuss whether their neighborhood feels like a busy city (urban), a quieter neighborhood with houses and yards (suburban), or an open area with farms and fields (rural).
• Activity Idea: Show photos or short videos of urban, suburban, and rural areas, and ask kids to identify which one looks most like their neighborhood.
• Use the resource Types of Communities|Urban, Suburban, Rural Communities What Is A Community Bundle to teach about the characteristics of each community type.

4. Create a Neighborhood Map

Let children apply what they’ve learned by creating their own maps.

• Product Highlight: Creating a Neighborhood Map activity is a perfect way to integrate mapping skills into this lesson. Kids can design their own map of a neighborhood, including roads, landmarks, and community services.
• Collaborative Project: Work together as a group to combine individual maps into a large-scale community map.

Grab your free copy here

5. Notice Services and Landmarks

Help kids see the community as a network of places and people working together.

• Observation: Discuss local services (e.g., shops, factories, farms) and how they serve the community.
• Activity Idea: Create a chart of landmarks and services they’ve noticed, grouping them by purpose (e.g., recreation, transportation, food).

Activity Idea: Use the community maps created earlier to identify where industries or services might be located, such as a grocery store near houses or a park in the center of the neighborhood.

6. Make a “Community Connections” Poster

Bring it all together with a creative classroom project.

• Poster Idea: Have children work together to create a poster showing their neighborhood and school area. They can include drawings of places, labels, and descriptions of why each location is important.
• Discussion: Reflect on how these places help their community thrive and meet their needs.

Learning about their local community helps children understand the connections between people, places, and services. It also provides a foundation for exploring broader communities in future lessons. By encouraging observation and curiosity, you’re helping kids see their role in the world around them. With resources like Types of Communities | Urban Suburban Rural Communities | What Is A Community Bundle, kids will gain hands-on experience exploring and building their understanding of communities.
Stay tuned for the next post, where we’ll expand the conversation to include regions, countries, and the world!

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