Authority Figures

About this resource

Who is in charge at school, on the bus and in town, and who do I ask when I am not sure? This is a short picture story a student can turn like a book, 16 picture cards of school and community helpers, and 16 "who do I ask?" cards to sort onto a mat. It covers authority figures at an elementary level: the teacher, the principal, the bus driver, the crossing guard, the police officer, the firefighter and more, and what it looks like to listen to the grown-ups who help keep us safe. It comes with the log that writes down what happened, so the lesson does not stay a one-time lesson.

EVERYTHING INSIDE — 38 pages

• An 8-page picture story, "Grown-Ups Who Help Us": one big picture and one short sentence on each page, a "My name" line and one instruction at the top of every page
• The whole story on one black-and-white page, for the photocopier
• 16 helper picture cards in full color, cut apart 4 across and 2 down so each cut is one straight line: teacher, principal, bus driver, crossing guard, police officer, firefighter, nurse, librarian, lunch helper, coach, custodian, art teacher, music teacher, counselor, office helper and teacher aide. Each has a picture, a word and a short line
• The same 16 helper cards in black-and-white ink-saver
• 16 "who do I ask?" cards in full color (four each for the teacher, the bus driver, the lunch helper and the coach), such as "I do not know what to do next" or "I spilled my milk"
• The same 16 "who do I ask?" cards in black-and-white ink-saver
• A "Who Do I Ask?" sort mat with the four grown-ups
• 8 blank cards: the student draws a picture and writes the words on type-in lines
• Circle One: 8 new situations, each with a picture and two helpers to choose from
• Grown-Ups Who Help Me: the student draws a helper at school, on the bus and in town
• I Listened Today: a page of 10 stars to color, one each time the student listens to a helper
• A how-to page with the answer key for the cards and the circle-one page
• An Asking and Listening Log (19 rows: date, what I saw in your words, which adult, asked or listened Y or N, initials)
• A weekly roll-up (8 weeks) with a percent graph
• A filled example: an invented student, one week on the log and three weeks on the roll-up, with the adults involved
• A family page with six small cards to cut apart and a note home
• A hand-off page so a paraprofessional or another classroom uses the same cards the same way, with a blank line for your school's own rule
• A phrase bank: 23 lines in 6 groups (spoken lines for the story and the cards, written starters for the log, the roll-up and the note home)
• A storage and binder label sheet: 12 labels and a spine strip
• Start Here, a contents page, and a "what's next" back page

The Cards

Sixteen helper cards name the people. Sixteen "who do I ask?" cards give a small everyday situation, and the student sorts each onto the grown-up they would ask. An adult reads each card aloud. Use a blank card for any helper or situation that is not printed here.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

It is a fillable PDF: type into the name lines, the log, the roll-up, the family page, the hand-off page and the blank cards, or print and use a pen. It works offline with no account or subscription. It is NOT an editable online slideshow or word-processor document.

Who This Is For

Special education and general education teachers (grades K-3), paraprofessionals and school counselors who want a concrete picture-and-sort activity on school and community helpers and listening to adults, case managers who need it to show up as data, and the families who get the home page.

More In The Collection

This set is in the Visual Supports Collection, alongside Safe vs Unsafe Sort Cards and Story, Hallway Expectations Sort Cards, Stop-Think-Act Impulse Control Picture Cards and Log and Social Stories: Classroom Expectations. Free to try first: Visual Supports Starter Set FREE.

Pictures (color pages): Noto Emoji by Google, Apache License 2.0. Pictures (ink-saver pages): Fluent Emoji, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, MIT License.