Materials:

 Introduction:

Ask families to provide pictures of everyone in the child's family in advance. These can be hung in a particular part of the room as they come in. If a child's family does not provide pictures, have the child draw pictures of people in his or her family. Present each child's family on the wall or board in clusters so that it is easy to discern what family members belong together in a group.

 Objective/Purpose:

The child will demonstrate an understanding of the concept of a family.

 Procedure:

1. This lesson can be broken down into many lessons, allowing each child to present their family to the rest of the group and to talk about individual family members. Discuss how family members are important to us and accent the many similarities and differences between families (e.g., "Sarah's mother works at home while Susan's mother works at the court house.")

2. Encourage children to find similarities and differences among family members. Discuss how different family members contribute to the family in different ways (e.g., "Tom's Dad does the cooking because he likes to cook more than his Mom does. She does all the laundry.")

3. Talk about how family members contribute the the child's well being (e.g., cooking, cleaning, taking them places, taking care of them when they are sit, buying them things they need).

4. Children can be asked to verbally share to the group ways their family is important to them or they can be asked to express this in an individual activity, such as a drawing, journal, or demonstration.

  Practice & Extended Activities:

The housekeeping area of the room can be set up to especially accent family life. Art activities, dramas, music and other intelligences should be stimulated around this theme. Be creative. Murals can be drawn of family members. Comparison charts can be constructed to compare the differences or likenesses in families (e.g., 10 of the families have a Mom and a Dad living together, 3 families have just a Mom, 1 family has two Moms, 2 families have Grandparents, etc.)

Children can draw pictures or write in a journal about their experiences with their families. They should be allowed to practice problem solving in the play areas or to express their knowledge in some sort of art, drama, language, or other expression.