Family Unit

In the next couple of weeks the little one and I are heading off to visit some family.  I thought this would be a great unit to do before we see a lot of extended family members.

Books:

Are you my mother?, P.D. Eastman

Love you forever, Robert Munsch

Guess How Much I Love You, Sam McBratney

Just Me and My Dad, Mercer Mayer

The Family Book, Todd Paar
A Pocket Full of Kisses, Audrey Penn
The Relatives Came, Cynthia Rylant
Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too?, Eric Carle
You Were Loved Before You Were Born, Eve Bunting and Karen Barbour
I Love You Because You're You, Liza Baker
Counting Kisses, Karen Katz
Grandma Calls Me Beautiful, Barbara M. Josse

Rhymes/Songs:

Song--"I Love Mommy" (or Daddy, Brother, Sister, etc.)  (tune:  Frere Jacques)

I love Mommy, I love Mommy.
Yes I do; yes I do.
And my mommy loves me,
Yes, my mommy loves me,
Loves me too; loves me too.

Families
Some families are large (spread arms out wide)
Some families are small (bring arms close together)
But I love my family (cross arms over chest)
Best of all!

A Family Fingerplay
This is a family (hold up one hand, fingers spread)
Let's count them and see,
How many there are,
And who they can be (count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

This is the mother (touch pointer finger)
Who loves everyone
And this is the father (touch big finger)
Who is lots of fun.

This is my sister (touch ring finger)
She helps and she plays,
And this is the baby (touch little finger)
He's growing each day.

But who is this one? (touch thumb)
He's out there alone,
Why it's Jackie, the dog,
And he's chewing a bone. (wiggle thumb)

Love Song (replace mommy with other family members)
Love my Mommy,
Yes I do,

Love my Mommy, 

Yes I do,

Love my Mommy, 

Yes I do,

Love my Mommy, 

And I love you!

Activities: 

Note:  Before I begin this unit, I ordered a few (doubles or triples of each person) cheap prints of different family members (grandparents, some cousins/aunts/uncles, parents, child, etc...).  Plan accordingly.

1. Creative Play/Arts and Crafts:  Family puppets:  Collect some small brown bags (or popsicle sticks).  Attach individual pictures of your family members to the top of the brown bag or to the popsicle stick.  Have fun acting out what that person would say and interacting with all the family members as puppets.

2.  Math: Picture Matching:  Use some of the pictures you printed out (alternatively you could find some pictures online of a "mom," "dad," etc...).  Have your child name and then match them to the same picture.  Ex: You would have two prints each of grandma, grandpa and their cousin.  Have your child match grandma to grandma, grandpa to grandpa and cousin to cousin.

3. Writing/Arts and Crafts: Family Tree fingerpainting:  Get a large piece of butcher paper and draw a tree or an outline.  Using fingerpaint and have your child make a thumbprint of every family member.  Once it dries, label them and talk about each member of your family.

4. Arts and Crafts:  Family Collage: At the end of the week, glue all the pictures that you used throughout the week together.  You can also draw pictures of your family or for older children maybe find some things in magazines that family members like and glue them to the collage.  Display it in a prominent place where you can talk about it a lot. 

Spiritual:  Sing Families Can Be Together Forever and other family songs from the Children's Songbook.  Use this article for any supplemental activities.

Extras:  This is a great week to spend a few extra minutes writing letters to family members, adding pictures of family to your fridge, calling and talking to family who doesn't live close (using skype too) and going through photo albums or pictures together.