Book Talk Tuesday – The Family Book -

Now that my students have begun to come down from their Halloween high, it’s time to start thinking about Thanksgiving. I’ve always taught Thanksgiving a little differently. In my experience, young children can’t begun to understand the symbolism related to Pilgrims and Native Americans because they don’t have the background understanding of the historical value that these symbols represent.

In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving my class spends a lot of time exploring the concept of family – the people who make up our families, what it means to be a family, and reasons why families are important. These are all topics that children can easily understand and relate to, because they all have a frame of reference for family.

The other great thing about exploring all of our families together is that we are able to consider different kinds of families, and encourage children to get to know the members of each others’ families so that they can understand that all kinds of families are important. A book that I love to read during this exploration is The Family Book, by Todd Parr. This book is a celebration of all kinds of families, written in a way that even the youngest children can understand and appreciate. As is typical for Parr’s books, The Family Book is bright and colorful, and the illustrations are very simple.

Children of all ages can appreciate the message that this book presents because it validates that every kind of family is special and valuable.