We are Family!

As an extension of the Building Community & Character unit,  our team decided that we wanted to include a mini social studies unit on family and creating a classroom family.  I thought this was a great idea and was totally on board.  With the direction of our next couple of weeks decided, my teammate Shelley and I hit the ground running to get the lesson plans in place!  It's kind of our thing and no secret among our team... we both LOVE to plan and organize!  Yep, uh-huh!

Our teammate Haley shared an awesome blog post that she came across on First Grade W.O.W.  The post was entitled Me and My Family and was a great resource for kicking off this unit.  Nancy over at First Grade W.O.W. even shares a few sample pages of her mini family unit and these were SO helpful in getting us started and were used to springboard other ideas for the lessons.
Thank you Nancy!!

In addition to using some of the resources and freebies found at First Grade W.O.W., I wanted to incorporate actual family portraits of each of the students.  After some research, Shelley and I came across a cute family poem on Pinterest and decided to use it as a way to introduce the new unit to the parents and ask for each child to bring in a family portrait or photo.

 

// Disclaimer:  I have made several efforts to give credit to the original owner/source of the poem - http://primarypractice.blogspot.com/ - but have been unsuccessful in my attempts as the blog is only open to invited readers only.  In no way do I assume credit for the above poem.  //

Below you will find the poem and letter sent home to each student's parent introducing the unit and requesting a family picture.  Thanks Shelley for your quick mind and typing hands!!  

Here is a snapshot of the "always a work in progress" lesson plans that I used to guide this mini family unit.  The week was a short one due to the Labor Day holiday and as the week progressed, I actually ended up changing the plans for Friday and going a different route.  Keep reading to find out how!

On the introductory day of the mini unit, I created an anchor chart titled, "What is a family?", and provided students with index cards.  Students were asked to write and/or illustrate what the word "family" means to them.  Some guiding questions I used were, "Who did it include?" and "What did it look like?"  As students finished their definitions of family they posted them onto the anchor chart.  Returning as a whole group on the carpet, each student was given the opportunity to share.  The student share time was AWESOME!  It provided many different avenues for discussion as students related to one another's definition of family, as they shared recognizing that many of their families included the same people (i.e., Mom, Dad, brother, sister, etc.), and that some key words like "caring", "love", "help" kept popping up.  I was so impressed with their thinking!   

To wrap up day 1, I read The Family Book by Todd Parr.  This is such a great book and really illustrates in a bright, funky kind-of-way how each family is unique, special, and full of love.  My students LOVED this read-aloud!

On the second day of the mini unit, students shared their family portraits and pictures sent from home.  Oh boy, were they excited!!  Just as the index cards activity sparked good discussions, I witnessed so much "getting to know you better" type questioning coming from students as they listened to their classmate show and share about the special people in their lives.  These are the moments you wish you could just bottle up!

After students shared their pictures, I read All Families Are Special by Norma Simon.  This book is rather long (32 pages) and I still wanted to fit in one more activity to wrap up day 2, so I decided to only read the first half of the book and save the last half for the following day.  The book represents a wide variety of family situations (so be cautious and perhaps preview before reading aloud to your class) and includes multi-cultural family components.

   

After reading the first half of the book and leading a brief book discussion, students returned to their seats and completed the "My Family Portrait" page.  This page was adapted from the one found in First Grade W.O.W.'s  Me and My Family freebie.

   

On Day 3, we continued with our reading of All Families Are Special followed by a brief book discussion.  I projected the Families: Can... Have... Are diagram page (created by my tag-team partner on this unit Shelley) onto the board and we worked as a whole group sharing our own ideas and those that were sparked by the various family books we had read during the week.  Students had their own paper copy of the diagram page and recorded their thinking as I did on the board. 

   

Here is a picture of the student ideas shared during our whole group discussion.  They had SO many great things to share that I even had to drawn more lines!! 

These are snapshots taken of student work.

       

On the last day of the mini unit, I replaced the original plan with a class craft project.  I wanted to showcase the students, their families, and the LOVE that each had and shared about during the week.  So, I projected a heart image onto the board and using red butcher paper, I traced the heart.  Some students helped me cut out the heart (you better believe I had my most precise scissor users on this task!) and other students filtered through the family pictures deciding where to place them within and on the big heart.  I printed out "We are Family" and glued it in the very center.  This "change of plans aka Plan B" turned out to be a really fun project and an awesome way to wrap up the unit as a class!

Here is the final product... We are Family!

// Images were blurred to protect the privacy of the students and their families. //