Career Development-Third Grade

Below are the lessons for 3rd Grade. I typically have 2 lessons for this grade level, however, more often than not, I need an extra lesson in the upper elementary classes to complete everything!!! When I start my 3rd grade lesson, I start by asking:

"By a show of hands, how many of you already know what you want to be when you grow up"?

The hands will fly in the air and nearly every student will already have their mind made up!! I then tell them that I want to tell them a story about a 3rd grader that already had his mind made up to!!I proceed to read the story, "Roger the Vet".  This story is about a boy who made a decision to be a Veterinarian, and refused to consider any other option.  He didn't know what it really meant to be a Vet, he just knew he liked playing with animals.  Its a really neat story and many students can relate.  After the story, we talk about the importance of career exploration and how important it is explore all your options and learn as much as you can about your interest.  After the discussion, I give the students a copy of the Career Pathways worksheet that goes with the story.  This worksheet explores 6 of the sixteen clusters.  As I pass it out, I let the students know that there are 16 career clusters, but for the purposes of elementary, we will over cover 6 areas/clusters. After they complete the worksheet, I give each student a folder and tell them this will be their career folder and we will use it for the next 3 years!! The story and worksheet can be found in "Lively Lessons" by Rosanne Sheritz Sartori; unfortunately, I cannot post a copy of the worksheet due to copyright laws, but many of you may already have this book on your shelf!!

Lesson 2 requires the computer lab!! I have students explore the site, Paws in Jobland...This is a great resource and students really enjoy it and have fun while navigating through the site.  The get the chance to take another personality assessment and can compare this to the career pathways assessment, and they are given the opportunity to learn about jobs that they interested in, not just what was selected for them.  There are 2 different versions, the version I have linked on this site is the FREE one...if you simply go to Paws in Jobland from Google, its the more updated version and newer so I'm sure you have more options in the updated version, however, they do offer a free trial. I created a simply worksheet to go along with the lesson.  The link to the worksheet we used is listed below:

This activity usually takes 2 lessons.  If you've ever been in a computer lab with 25+ kids you can imagine how much fun it is to get everyone logged in on the computer and to right location!! I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "What am I suppose to do?" I don't always have time to go back in to do that 3rd lesson, but I do give the option to the teachers so they can have students work on it during the finals days of school if they have time.