Exploring Families with Preschoolers.

My favorite topic to explore during the month of November is always families.  This is the perfect time to help children understand concepts related to relationships because they will probably get to see their families over the holiday season.  This is also a wonderful time to explore diversity within family structures and traditions because children will undoubtedly have different family experiences to share with each other.

This can be a sensitive subject for parents because they are acutely aware that not all families look the same, but children find this fascinating and can learn a lot about acceptance from each other.  It’s always a good idea to send a note home explaining that you will be exploring family structures and the vocabulary associated with them.  Parents will probably get a few questions from their children after discussing these topics in class, so it’s good to make sure that they are prepared to have these discussions.

I really wanted to create a basic family tree structure that you could use to help your students understand who is who and how they are related, but as I started putting it together I struggled with the structure.  I wanted something that the children could take home and fill in with their own families, but there is no template that will fit every single family.  So instead I decided to round up some incredible family tree projects so that you could come up with your own way to visualize this for your students.