Family Roles

Teacher: Sara Kohandel

Grade: Kindergarten
Subject: Social Studies
Duration: 25-30 minutes

OUTCOMES FROM ALBERTA SOCIAL STUDIES PROGRAM OF STUDIES

General Learning Outcomes:

K.2 – I Belong: Students will demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of the characteristics and interests that
unite members of communities and groups.

Specific Learning Outcomes:

K.2.2 – Value and respect significant people in their lives: appreciate the important contributions of individuals at
home, at school, and in the community.
K.2.3 – Appreciate how their participation in their communities affects their sense of belonging: appreciate the
impact that group members have on each other; demonstrate respect for the diverse ways individuals cooperate; work
and play together; and assume responsibility for personal actions, words and choices.
K.2.4 – Examine the characteristics and interests that bring people together in exploring and reflecting upon the
following questions for inquiry: Can we belong to several groups at one time? How does living and participating in
your community affect our sense of belonging?

TEACHING QUALITY STANDARDS

TQS 3 – Demonstrating a Professional Body of Knowledge: This lesson will address specific learning outcomes in
the kindergarten social studies program of study to reflect purposeful understanding of belonging to a community. In
this lesson, specifically, the community being explored is the home. This lesson also demonstrates the instructional
strategy of interactive read-alouds. The interactive read-aloud of Families will allow students to be involved in the
process of understanding the content and engaging with it on a personal level. This lesson scaffolds onto the prior
knowledge of students since they have been talking about family configurations and diversity.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

- Identify ways that families in the book Families helped one another
- Identify their many roles and contributions to their own families through discussion and interaction with the
learning activity

MATERIALS AND SOURCES

- A Family is a Family is a Family book

- Families book
- Markers, pencil, crayons
- Glue sticks or tape
- scissors
- Laminated doll house
- Blank paper
- Household object

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

For this lesson, students will draw on their prior knowledge of…

- Their discussion of what a family is based on the book A Family is a Family is a Family
- Their drawings about their family
 - Interactions with their family in their house
- Their understanding of themselves as an individual (a daughter, son, brother, sister, etc.)
ACTIVITIES
DIFFERENTIATIONS

Since this activity is not executed individually, there will not be any differentiations made for individual work. The
interactive read aloud will be helpful for ELL students because the teacher will stop at opportune times to describe
vocabulary and culturally significant information.

Lesson
The teacher will ask students to make their way to the floor to begin the lesson. The teacher will activate the
background knowledge of students by reminding them about the book ‘A Family is a Family is a Family.’

- The teacher will remind students that families come in all sizes and configurations (without 10-12
minutes
using this confusing language). Some families have only one mommy or daddy, some have two
mommies and daddies, some have grandparents, aunts and uncles. Some families are big
(motion big) and some are small (motion small). Families can look all the same or different.
The teacher will refer to specific pages that demonstrate this understanding of families.
- The teacher will refer to pages in the book where children are helping their families to reiterate
the fact that no matter what our family looks like, what we have in common is that we do things
together and we help each other. The teacher will ask students to think about helping their
families as they read the next book, Families.
- The teacher will engage in an interactive read-aloud of Families and stop at opportune times to
share commentary and make observations
- Pg.15: The word ‘adopt’ may be unfamiliar to some students. The teacher will stop at this page
to introduce the word, its pronunciation, and its meaning in a way that is palatable for the age
group.
- Pg.22-25: “What are the families doing on this page?”
- Pg.26-27: “How are these families helping one another?”

After the teacher reads the story, there will be a chance for discussion about the content. Specifically, the teacher
will focus on pg.26-27 to ask students what they do to help their families.

- The teacher will go back to parts of the book that are most relevant to this lesson, specifically, 10
the teacher will refer to pages 26-27. minutes
- Pg.26-27: “What were the families here doing to help one another? Is it important for
families to help each other? How do you think the people in this book feel when they are
helping one another? Do they feel angry or are they happy that they are being helped?
What do you do around the house to help your family?” The teacher can point out specific
pictures on these two pages to prompt answers from students. “Do you help your little
brother like these two brothers?” What kinds of things do you do as a big brother or big
sister? Do you help your family by doing chores?” The teacher will ensure that they are
using language like brother, sister, daughter, son etc. to solidify the student’s understanding of
their role in the family.
- In this discussion, students should be able to identify some of the responsibilities that they have
around the house by looking to the book for examples. Students will begin to develop an idea
of their role in their home as a brother or sister and someone who helps out their parents by
doing chores.

This activity will be the culmination of the lesson. The teacher will bring out a large piece of paper that has the
cross-section of a house drawn on it. The house will have the different rooms labeled as well as printed and glued
pictures of furniture and other accessories to signify what room it is. The teacher and one or two students will add
themselves into the picture as a way of understanding their place in the home.

- The teacher will display a large piece of paper that looks like the cross-section of a house with 10
furniture and accessories inside it minutes
- “We’ve been talking about our families, what it means to be a family, and the kinds of
ways that we care about our families. (Referring to page 26-27) Do you see how it’s the
dad’s job to help his son ride his bike? Do you see how it’s the job of the two brothers to
help with laundry? Do you see how it’s the job of the brother and sister to do the
 recycling? Do you remember how we have jobs to do at school? I have a job, Mrs. Wu
has a job, and you have a job. What is your job at school? Your job is to learn, at snack
time your job is to eat, after center time your job is to clean etc. Just like at school, we
have jobs at home that show our family that we care about them.”
- “In my house, my job is to wash the dishes and put them away. It makes my mom and
dad really happy and it shows them that I care.” The teacher will pick a room in the house
that is significant to their role in the home (the kitchen). They will draw a picture of
themselves—reminding students how to properly draw someone to refer back to the previous
task of drawing families (what does a person need to have? A head, a neck, a torso, legs, etc.)
—doing an activity that signifies how they contribute to their family. The teacher will draw a
picture of themselves in the kitchen washing dishes.
- The teacher will ask students to take a moment to think about what they do in each of the
rooms to help their family. “How do you help your family in the living room, the kitchen,
the backyard, the dining room or the bathroom?”
- After the students have a chance to think, the teacher will pick 1-3 students, depending on
time, to give the class an example of a room that they help their family in (the teacher will
mention to the class that everyone will get a chance to share their answer this week so that no
one feels bad for not getting picked)
- The teacher will draw the examples that the students give and ask the students how their
activity helps their family and shows that they care

Closure
The teacher will let the students know that this week they will get a chance to do a drawing of their own. 5
Today the students can go home and talk to their families about what they do around the house to help minutes
and show that they care. Students will be asked to bring in a small object that represents something that
they do in the house to help their family. At this point the teacher will show the students that they
brought in a sponge to represent washing dishes. Students will be incentivized to bring in an object by
being told that only students that bring in an object will be allowed to share it with the class. The
teacher will mention this activity to the parents on the school messenger so that parents know to help
their child find an item.
Assessment

This lesson will be assessed formatively. The teacher will note students that are able to participate during the
interactive read-aloud, students that contribute to the discussion after the reading, and students that put their hands up
to show that they can contribute to the labeling activity.