Krieger Elementary School’s kindergarten classes enjoyed Career Week last week. It was an opportunity to explore several different jobs before each class took turns role-playing the professions for their fellow students.
Each classroom focused on a different career and setting: a bakery, a construction site, a grocery store, a veterinarian’s office, artist, dietitian and urban gardener.
The students on Thursday rotated through each room, learning about the different careers. Students took turns, also, staying in their classroom to teach visiting students about each job. The purpose, Principal Melissa Barrow said, was “to expose them to careers that are right in their own neighborhoods” and “help them think about careers they would like to have when they get older.” She noted the activity also helped them “learn new vocabulary, speaking skills and extend their thinking beyond the four walls of the classroom.”
Students made cannoli out of construction paper and fluff, built using blocks and toy tools, checked the health of and groomed stuffed animals using a checklist and toys, made cakes out of foam, used scales to weigh grocery food items, wrote grocery lists and counted money at checkout counters, and other interactive activities. 
“The students became the teachers,” Barrow said, “and they did an amazing job!”