1st Grade - Act. 14: Who's in Your Family

Summary

After reading Carol A. Johnson's book titled "Family", students will create a classroom graph of their family members.

Materials

• Family book and audio tape by Carol A. Johnson
• blackline copy of family words: father, mother, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, grandfather, grandmother.
• scissors

Additional Resources

Families Are Different by Nina Pellegrini (Single parent families, adoption, grandparents raising children, etc.)
Families around the World by Jenny Vaughan. (Photographs of families from around the world.)
Loving by Ann Morris (Pictures of families all over the world doing what all families do--loving each other.)
Houses and Homes by Ann Morris. (Photographs of homes from around the world.)
The Family of Earth by Schim Schimmel (Beautiful picture book with animal families.
"The earth may look different to each of us, but we share only one earth." Use to introduce ecology and our responsibility to take care of the earth for each other.
We Dream of a World by the Gifted and Talented Students of Pershing Accelerated School. Students draw and write about their dreams for a world at peace.

Background for Teachers

This lesson is designed to introduce and use the titles of members of a family. The book Family defines what family member relationships are: "Who's my mother's brother? He's my uncle. Who's your Daddy's brother? He's my uncle, too!" Story ends with: "Who is my true family? Everybody! Everyone and everywhere and every color, too."

Intended Learning Outcomes

Intended Learning Outcomes
5. Understand and use basic concepts and skills.

Process Skills
Symbolization, classification, description

Instructional Procedures

Invitation to Learn
Read Family and sing a song with the audiotape.

Instructional Procedures

1. As a group, identify the words in the text that name a family member, listing each on the board as they are found (i.e., mother, father, sister, uncle, etc.)
2. Review each word, looking at beginning sounds-letters, ending sounds-letters, number of syllables.
3. Revisit text to define each name: What is an aunt? (Mother’s sister or father’s sister.)
4. List each family member’s name in student spelling dictionary for use in writing.
5. Have students cut out one family name card for each member of their family.
6. Tape cards to a graph labeled with family titles--father, mother, etc.
7. Have the class determine how many fathers, mothers, etc. they have all together by reading the graph.
8. Have students compare the numbers of members in their families. Which group has more? Which has the least? (This activity could be done in small groups using a separate graph for each group. You could then compare numbers of family members between groups.)

Extensions

Possible Extensions/Adaptations

• Draw a house with one window for each member of the family. Use details to personalize the room. For example, if mom is quiet use soft, warm colors. If a brother likes soccer you could put a soccer ball in the room.
• Use family title names and a house picture to introduce and practice the concept of a fact family. (Father is the largest number, mother is the middle number and baby is the smallest of the three numbers.)
• Extend the family concept to include the world as one big family.
• Introduce concept that families come in all sizes. Not all families have the same family members.
• Read Bread, Bread, Bread by Ann Morris. This book shows families from many cultures with their ‘bread.’ Bring in different grains (rice, wheat, corn, oats, millet, etc. to grind in class. Talk about how the different grain is grown and the different ways it is used by families all over the world. Make butter (shaking cream in a bottle) and bring in samples of different kinds of bread to taste.

** (I buy a 12-grain bread mix and use a bread maker to cook the bread in class.)

Family Connections
Families could create a “Family Tree.” Students would then be able to see which aunt is mom’s sister and which aunt is dad’s sister, etc.

Assessment Plan

Assessment will depend on which activity or extension you use. Could the students accurately portray family members? Do they recognize the family name words? Can they read the information from their graph?