A neighborhood field trip is a great activity for children to learn about the people in their neighborhood. A field trip provides a visual experience for preschoolers to connect the neighbors and their roles. Preschoolers have an easier time identifying people by their job. It's a good idea to start with neighbors who have easily recognizable roles in the community, such as crossing guards, policeman, fireman, librarians and store clerks and owners.
There are a variety of "my neighborhood" coloring books to help preschoolers learn about the people in their neighborhood. Most preschoolers love to color and use color to make connections to their environment. You can have the children color in the people in the community and repeat the name of the person out loud. After the children are done coloring, you can go through and pick a person at random and ask the children if they remember his or her name or job.
Association activities are great way to help preschoolers identify and remember the people in their neighborhood. You can create cutouts of different people in the neighborhood and their associations. Hold up the item the person is associated with and have the children identify the person. For example, you can hold up a cutout of a fire truck and ask the children to identify a person in the neighborhood that drives one. Association games make it easier for preschoolers to store and recall information.
Preschoolers are still developing their language skills so word games are a good way to teach children about people in the neighborhood. You can use alphabet cutouts to represent the first letter of the names of the people in the neighborhood. You can also use letters or images to represent the jobs of the people in the neighborhood. For example, you can hold up a letter, say it aloud and then ask the children to identify the person whose name begins with that letter.