1.  Ask the children, "What is your family? Huggy or stuffy? Quiet or loud? Small or large?" Have the children think of a word that goes with each letter in FAMILY to describe their family.

2.  Make a "Family Flower Garden" or "Room 12's Garden" on a wall in the classroom. Each child will be making a flower that represents himself or herself in the garden. Let them cut out large tagboard or construction paper flowers and decorate (with faces). Ask them beforehand, "Will you be thorny, in full bloom? Will you be a sunflower or a rose? Will you be a daisy or a dandelion?"

3.  Make a classroom family puzzle. Enlarge the puzzle piece below or use it as is. Cut out tagboard pieces for each child in the class. Mark the back of each piece with an X. The puzzle pieces will not connect if everyone does not decorate the same side. Let each child decorate their piece with photos, art, name, favorite books, etc. Make a large middle piece by connecting six puzzle pieces and tracing around them. Label the middle piece: Class 14's Family, Ms. Freeman's Family, Our Reading Family, etc.

To connect, glue to poster paper.
 

4.  Make a classroom family quilt.

5.  Make a classroom pizza pie. Using white or tan butcher paper, make a giant circle on a bulletin board. Crumble the edges slightly to resemble crust. On tag board, make another giant circle, slightly smaller than the original. divide into 24 or 36 pieces of pie (depending on class size). Have each child decorate his own piece of pizza pie. Assemble. (Bring in a menu from a real pizza parlor for ideas on what they might like on their piece.)

6.  Make family graphs with the headings: number of parents, number of grandparents, number of aunts and uncles, number of cousins, number of pets, and number of brothers and sisters.
 

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