What Do Other People's Families Look Like?
Grade Level: Kindergarten
Topic: Families
Unit Essential Questions: “What is a family?” “What do families do together?”
Lesson Essential Question: “What do other peoples’ families look like?”
Time Needed: about 30-45 minutes
Standards:
NCSS Standards –
Materials Needed:
Objectives: Students will be able to…
Lesson Context: This is the third lesson within the unit on families. The students have already thought about who they are and what their household looks like. The students will now be looking at what other family types there are.
Lesson Opening: The other day each one of us got to share about whom we live with. Not everybody’s family looked just like the next person’s family. Today we’re going to look at all different families and see what kinds of forms families can take.
Procedures:
Single Parent (one parent with at least one child)
Divorced Family (Two divorced adults with joint custody of children)
Blended Family (couple and one or more children from a previous relationship)
Adopted Family (at least one parent with at least one adopted child)
Never Married Family (Two unwed parents living together with children)
Married Without Children (Two married adults choosing not to have children)
Same-Sex Family (Two same sex adults with children)
Cross-Generational (Grandparent, Parent, and Child all live together)
Relatives as parents (Grandparents, aunts, uncles, or other relatives as parents)
Closure: Now that I have all of the pages illustrated, the book is ready to be binded together. I will do this tonight and we will all sit back down tomorrow to read it together. After that it will be placed in our library.
Assessment: While reading the book, the teacher will be talking about each page (including asking questions) to keep the students focused and attentive. The teacher will also be circulating during illustration time. This will be used to observe how well the students are working together with their partner (if they have one). The teacher will also be able to formally assess how well the student understands the family type given to them by looking at the illustration they drew and how they explain that drawing when they hand it in.
Topic: Families
Unit Essential Questions: “What is a family?” “What do families do together?”
Lesson Essential Question: “What do other peoples’ families look like?”
Time Needed: about 30-45 minutes
Standards:
NCSS Standards –
- Culture
- People, Place, and Environments
- Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
- Participate in activities that require a division of labor
- Identify similarities and differences in individuals
- Work together to find solutions to classroom problems
Materials Needed:
- White Construction Paper (book pages)
- Crayons or Markers
- Family coloring pages
- Puzzles
Objectives: Students will be able to…
- Visualize each different type of family
- Draw a picture of one type of family
- Explain their drawing
- Listen to the story and explanations
Lesson Context: This is the third lesson within the unit on families. The students have already thought about who they are and what their household looks like. The students will now be looking at what other family types there are.
Lesson Opening: The other day each one of us got to share about whom we live with. Not everybody’s family looked just like the next person’s family. Today we’re going to look at all different families and see what kinds of forms families can take.
Procedures:
- While sitting in the large group, tell the students that we are going to be making a book. Each person will get to illustrate one page in the book. The pages will have the text on them and there will be a big blank space on each page for the illustration.
- Each page will be about a different type of family. For some of the pages, two students will work together to draw the illustration. These students will be strategically chosen to be sure that they work well together (plan these pairings out ahead of time). The types of families (pages in our book) will be:
Single Parent (one parent with at least one child)
Divorced Family (Two divorced adults with joint custody of children)
Blended Family (couple and one or more children from a previous relationship)
Adopted Family (at least one parent with at least one adopted child)
Never Married Family (Two unwed parents living together with children)
Married Without Children (Two married adults choosing not to have children)
Same-Sex Family (Two same sex adults with children)
Cross-Generational (Grandparent, Parent, and Child all live together)
Relatives as parents (Grandparents, aunts, uncles, or other relatives as parents)
- Read the book (without illustrations) to the children. Stop at the end of each page to talk about what each of these families look like. If needed, draw a sketch on the board to help them visualize the family structure.
- Tell the students your expectations of the illustrations. They should be your best work; No stick figures whenever possible. It may be helpful to draw in a house to help illustrate the families.
- Begin to give the students their pages. Call each group up one at a time. Tell him/her (or them) what their family to illustrate will be. Have the student tell you what that family looks like. Ask them if they have an idea (a blueprint) of how they will draw this. Also, if they are in pairs, tell them that they need to plan it out first and divide up the work evenly in a way that will work for them. Have them tell you their plan before they start drawing.
- Once they are all in their places, circulate the room and observe how the students are working together. Keep a close eye on pairs to be sure they are working efficiently.
- As students begin to finish, collect their pages. While they wait for the rest of the students to finish, have coloring pages and/or puzzles available for them to work on while they wait.
Closure: Now that I have all of the pages illustrated, the book is ready to be binded together. I will do this tonight and we will all sit back down tomorrow to read it together. After that it will be placed in our library.
Assessment: While reading the book, the teacher will be talking about each page (including asking questions) to keep the students focused and attentive. The teacher will also be circulating during illustration time. This will be used to observe how well the students are working together with their partner (if they have one). The teacher will also be able to formally assess how well the student understands the family type given to them by looking at the illustration they drew and how they explain that drawing when they hand it in.
