All in the Family

Family can look many ways and mean different things to different people. Brainstorm with your students the definition of family and what it means to them. Let this spark a conversation about all the kinds of family that exist and what constitutes a family. Some questions to get you started are:

• What emotions do you feel when you think of the word family?
• Where in your life do you find family?
• How does family treat one another?

Then, shift the focus to who your students consider family. This could be their caregivers, pets, friends or local community. Ask each student to write or illustrate a “family portrait” that includes all the members of who they consider family.

For each family portrait, encourage your students to create an accompanying pose or tableau that reminds them of their family or how their family makes them feel.

One by one, have your students share their family portrait and their accompanying pose with the class, so everyone can learn about where each other comes from and all the different types of families.

Finally, invite your students to take their visual artwork out of the classroom and share it with the people they depicted in their portraits, making sure to tell their unique families how much they mean to them.

To support this unit, use the My Chosen Family Handout.