Community Resources

Read about the types of community resources, how children are introduced to them and find tips and
teacher-made materials to cover the topic in primary school.

What are Community Resources?

The term 'community resources' covers a wide range of things that’s potentially helping the community.
This could be anything as long as it provides assistance or a service to the members of the local area. To
put it simply, community resources include people, places, activities and things. They could be
businesses, organizations, public service institutions or individuals in the community.

Community resources can also be funded in a variety of ways. They can be run by completely non-profit
groups or by the government, businesses or just one person. While traditionally these resources meant
specific support groups, charitable organisations or different outreach groups, nowadays, they refer to a
wider set of things.

The list of types of community resources are also endless. There are of course more established and
more commonly known ones that anyone could name from the top of their head. But as long as
something is supporting a community, a smaller group of it or even one single individual, that thing or
person counts as part of community resources.

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What are the types of community resources?

As mentioned before, it’s not easy to gather all types of community resources since they form quite a
wide group. However, it’s a good start to look at the differentiation of people, places, and services.
These can be seen as the main types of community resources with many smaller groups and individuals
within them.

Here are some examples of these to give you a general idea about community resources.
People

teacher;

postal worker;

firefighter;

florist;

doctor;

priest;

mechanic;

vet;

police officer;

dentist.

Places

place of worship;

butcher shop;

bakery;

flower shop;

grocery store;

post office;

GP;

gym;

playground;

train station;
 zoo;

museum;

library;

cinema;

theatre;

restaurant.

Services

physical and mental health services;

youth services;

substance abuse services;

religious services;

financial services;

entertainment services.

Have your children come up with examples from their everyday routines using this My Community
Worksheet. Or take things one step further and challenge your class to think about their dream
community with types of community resources. Download this colourful Ideal Community Worksheet.

How to teach children about community resources?

When teaching young children about community, resources and helpers, it’s important to build on their
existing knowledge. They might get intimidated by the term ‘community resource’, so why not approach
the topic from another angle? Ask your class if they can name any people, places or things from their
local area that helps someone on a regular basis. They can try to come up with a list of their ideas
individually or in smaller groups to reinforce team work. Have them start their thinking process from
themselves before looking for other examples from their broader surroundings.
Once the pupils have finished with their lists start a discussion within the class. To make the lesson more
interactive, you can turn the activity into a fun debating session. Before asking for examples, hand out
empty cards or papers to the young ones. They can write their ideas onto these, then go up to the
blackboard and stick them on. Once everyone contributed to the board, let the debate begin. Go
through each and every idea and see what the majority thinks; is it a type of community resources or
not? Make sure to also ask the children why they think one or the other.

Having a fun conversation like this about the topic will reinforce the main features of community
resources in the children. And once they have a general understanding of the subject, you can use
various teacher-made resources to talk more about the topic and to have your class practice it. It’s
important that children from a young age realise what others are doing for them so that they can fully
appreciate their service, devotion, time and hard work.

Explore teaching materials about community & community helpers

Teaching about community services can get tricky from time to time. The fact that so many things
belong to this group is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it’s easy to find examples, on the
other hand, it’s sometimes difficult to decide what is excluded from the list. So let us help you to
practice the topic with your pupils with colourful, engaging and handy teaching materials.

PowerPoints are always a good start as they engage with the children more than a simple piece of
paper. Try this informative slideshow that'll introduce the pupils to the topic in an interactive way. Or
smuggle some more fun into your lesson with this Community Helpers PowerPoint Game.

Once the young ones have a good idea about the types of community services, it's time to challenge
them. This fun Who Can Help Me Out Cut & Stick Worksheet will have them match scenarios with
professionals. Or do a similar exercise but with places instead of people using this Community Place and
Community Needs Worksheet.

Ready to approach the topic in a more creative way? Combine community with drama using role-play
masks or stick puppets. Children will surely have fun impersonating their local heroes.
You can also turn to colouring! It's a highly useful creative activity that improves fine motor skills, vision,
self-expression and concentration. Have your class colour away with these People Who Help Us
Colouring Sheets. If you'd also like to challenge the children while sticking to colouring, why not throw
some numbers into the mix? This lovely Colour by Number Dots Pack is perfect to combine social studies
with mathematics.

Looking for an entire resource pack to save you more time? Try this People Who Help Us Pack that
features display posters, reading comprehensions, fact cards, a word bank and multiple beautifully
illustrated PowerPoints.

What is Educational Media?

Educational media refers to channels of communication that carry messages with an instructional
purpose. They are usually utilised for the sole purpose of learning and teaching (Webcrawler, 2013).

Classification of Educational Media

There are different ways to classify media. Print media, non-print media, and electronic media.
(1)Print media: They include: books, journals, magazines, newspapers, workbooks, and textbooks
(2)Non-print media: They include: projected and non-projected media.
(3)Electronic media: They include audio media, visual media and audio-visual, projected media and non-
projected media
(i)Projected media: They require light source for projection, for example, film projector slides, and so on.

(ii) Non-projected media: They do not require light source. They include 3dimensional objects, 2
objects, prints, charts, models and so on.
(iii) (4)Audio media, Visual media & Audio-visual Audio media: This form of media carry sounds
alone, for example audio tapes, record player,

(i)Visual media: These are the ones that can be seen. For example, television, computer, white board
(ii)Audio-Visual: This term refers to those instructional materials which provide learners with audio and
visual experiences by appearing to the hearing and seeing senses at the same time, for example
television, video tapes, and closed circuit television (CCTV).
(5)Hardware and Software
(i)Hardware: This is the classification of machines or equipment utilised in the instructional process. It is
upon these gadgets that the software is transmitted, for example television set, tape recorder and so on.
(ii)Software: this classification consists of all materials used with the machine. They are the real carrier
of knowledge or information. They include, films, tapes transparencies.

What is Educational Multimedia?

Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. This contrasts
with media that use only rudimentary computer displays such as text-only or traditional forms of printed
or handproduced material. Multimedia includes a combination of text, audio, still images, animation,
video, or interactivity content forms (Vaughan, 1993).
Multimedia is usually recorded and played, displayed, or accessed by information content processing
devices, such as computerized and electronic devices, but can also be part of a live performance.
Multimedia devices are electronic media devices used to store and experience multimedia content.
Multimedia is distinguished from mixed media in fine art; by including audio, for example, it has a
broader scope (Vaughan,