Families Theme Lesson Plan

Art:
Make family portraits.
Have the children draw with crayons or markers on paper or a paper plate.
If the portrait is on a paper plate, you can attach a piece of yarn to it to hang it on the wall.

Make a family collage:
Have the children cut out pictures of people and pets from magazines. Then glue them on to paper. Let the children tell you about their picture. They can tell you why they picked the pictures and who they resemble in their family. This would work better with children who are at least preschool age.

What I like about my family book:
Have the children bring in pictures of each member of their family. Make a book for each child or have the children make them by stapling pieces of construction paper together. Glue a picture on each page. Then you can ask the children what they like about each member of the family and write it for them.

Dramatic Play:
You can use doll houses with the different people figures. I’ve seen the figures that are made to look like grandparents, babies, bigger children, people of different races etc.

Have a corner set up like the home. You can use a kitchen play set or turn a sensory table into a dish washing center. The kids I work with loved that one. One boy said, “we’re being like grown-ups.” We put water, a tiny bit of dish soap, plastic dishes, sponges, dish rags and a scrub brush.

Last year, I also turned the sensory table into a baby washing center with babies, soap, brushes and wash cloths. The kids always love anything to do with water so there’s always a waiting line.
You could do cooking, cleaning, taking care of babies or get other ideas from the children. Ask them what sorts of things they help out with in the home or what they do with their families.

For some extra sensory play, let the children use baby powder, baby shampoo, baby oil, lotion and wipes to wash babies. It’s probably a better idea to only use one or two of those things at a time since it’d make a huge mess.

To include some science and sorting in your family theme, play a file folder matching game. I don’t have one made up so I can’t take a picture of it, but cut out pictures of mother and baby animals. Tape one picture to the folder and laminate the corresponding picture. Have the children match the mothers and babies. You could also have pictures of animal families and match it with pictures of the same single animal. That way it would be asking the children which family does this animal belong to.

To learn about social studies, you could also have families bring in photos of each member and have the children glue them to paper trees. You can compare families and discuss different types of families. Some families only have one parent, some have two parents, some families are living with grandparents, some families are big while others are small etc.

Literacy:

Are You My Mother?

I Like It When...


Just Like Mommy
They have a version for dads as well and you can find it through the link above.

Reading, Math and Science Activities for an About Me Theme

Here are some more ideas for an about me theme.

For infants, have plenty of mirrors around so the children can study their faces and facial expressions. Infants and toddlers can try mimicking facial expressions while looking in the mirror. Mirrors are good for older children too. For preschoolers, they can try to draw what they see in the mirror.

For infants and toddlers, look at photos of the child and family members. See if they can pick out who’s who and talk about what they see in the picture. It can be a good labeling activity for infants and toddlers.
Preschoolers enjoy looking at photos too. You can take photos of them throughout the day doing normal things like playing, eating, getting ready to go outside etc. Make a picture schedule that you can add to and change. This can also be good for toddlers or any child getting used to a new routine.


For preschoolers, make a photo matching game.
Have two photos of each child in the class and have the kids try to match them up. To make it more challenging, you can do a memory game with it were all the photos are face down on the table and the kids have to remember where the photos are in order to match them up.

Look at fingerprints.
Fingerprint each child. Have the children look through magnifying glasses so that they can see the differences between fingerprints. You can talk about how everyone’s fingerprint is unique.

You can do a measuring activity. Have the children measure how tall they are against a piece of string. Cut the string to their height and then tape them to a large piece of paper. The children can see how tall they are and will be able to compare it to their friends.

For literacy, you can find or make picture books that have different people and faces for infants to look at. You can read books that go along with the theme to children of any age. There are a lot of books to choose from. I like It's Not Easy Being a Bunny. It’s a cute book and it’s about how Bunny tries being something he’s not, but in the end, he finds out that he likes being himself after all.

For preschoolers, you can have them draw pictures and decorate pages with things about themselves. They can use handprints, family photos, pictures of their favorite foods and things to do, pieces of paper or stickers that show their favorite colors etc. If they can write, they can write a sentence or two about each page or they can tell you what to write for them. You can keep these books on hand so the children can look at them later to learn about each other and enjoy their creations.

Art Activities for An About Me Theme

Reflection Paintings

Materials:

Plastic Spoons
Aluminum foil
Food Coloring
Corn Syrup

Instructions:

Allow the children to paint on aluminum foil with a mixture of food coloring and corn syrup. When they are done, they’ll have shiny paintings and will be able to see a reflection of themselves.

My Placemat

Materials:

Construction Paper
Paint
Picture of Child
Glue

Instructions:

Give each child a piece of paper. Let the children either paint or trace their handprint on the paper.
They can also decorate the paper any way that they want. Finally put their picture
And name somewhere on the page and laminate it. Use the placemats during meals or let the child use it how they’d like.

Photo Collage


Materials:

Construction paper,
Photos of the child and his or her family,
Glue,
And anything else the child would like to decorate their picture with.

Materials:

Let the child glue pictures onto the paper. They can also decorate the empty parts of the paper how they wish. While working on the project, you can talk about when the photos were taken, family members in the photos etc.