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[T4R] A Family is a Family is a Family: L1 Background Knowledge

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The Book

A Family Is a Family Is a Family

Written by Sara O’Leary, illustrated by Qin Leng, published by Groundwood Books

This heartwarming book celebrates diverse family structures and the love that binds them together. Through a classroom discussion, children share stories about their families, highlighting the uniqueness of each one while reinforcing the idea that all families are special.

This book provides opportunities for young students to explore concepts of family by recognising and describing family members (AC9HSFK01 – Foundation Year, Humanities and Social Sciences). It also encourages children to develop a sense of self within their family (AC9HPFP01 – Foundation Year, Health and Physical Education) while practising personal and social skills to interact respectfully with others, particularly in understanding inclusion and acceptance (AC9HPFP02 – Foundation Year, Health and Physical Education).

With its gentle storytelling and wonderful illustrations, A Family is a Family is a Family fosters empathy, respect, and an appreciation for the many forms that family can take.

View Book

Resource creator

Steven Huynh

Subject

English, Humanities and Social Sciences,

Level

Foundation,

Description

This is the first lesson of the Talk For Reading (T4R) unit of A Family is a Family is a Family.

The lesson helps students activate prior knowledge and build background knowledge about the concept of family.

Learning Intentions

• We are learning to build our background knowledge to help us comprehend a text.

Successful Criteria

• I can identify people in my family (AC9HSFK01).
• I can respond to questions about family (AC9HSFS04).
• I can discuss a wonderings chart with my friends and teacher that highlights my curiosities I have about the book (AC9EFLY05).

Curriculum Alignment

AC9EFLY05 9.0 (English Foundation): Use comprehension strategies such as visualising, predicting, connecting, summarising and questioning to understand and discuss texts listened to, viewed or read independently

• sequencing ideas in spoken texts, retelling well-known stories, retelling stories with picture cues, retelling information using prompts
• listening for specific purposes; for example, details of a character or to answer a given question
• relating one or two key facts from informative texts
• retelling events from First Nations Australians’ stories and cultural accounts in sequence
• predicting what might happen in a text based on the title and cover

AC9HSFK01 9.0 (Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation): The people in their family, where they were born and raised, and how they are related to each other

• discussing the members of a family (for example, mother, father, caregiver, sister, brother, grandparent, auntie, uncle, cousin) and acknowledging other varieties of kinship structure that may be represented in the cultural background of students (for example, cousin-brother and mother-auntie in First Nations Australian families)
• creating drawings of family members accompanied by information collected from questions and observations to share details of that person’s life, including the places they were born and raised
• creating concept maps of their family with pictures or photographs to show connections to those people who make up their family

AC9HSFS04 9.0 (Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation): Draw conclusions in response to questions

• identifying the main people in their family and explaining how they are related
• identifying the most important celebrations and commemorations in their lives and those of their family
• exploring the location and features of places they belong to and what makes those places special
• suggesting ways that they are going to care for their classroom, bedroom or playground

Materials

  • The Book: A Family is a Family is a Family.
  • The wonderings page or butcher’s paper (for teacher only) to record students’ ideas.
  • My Family Tree activity.

Instructions

1. Hook

  • Begin with a discussion using these questions:
    • Do you have a big family?
    • Who is in your family?
  • Encourage students to respond using sentence starters.
  • On the slide: Do families look the same for everyone in our class?
    • The teacher models their own family with simple illustrations (e.g., Mum, Dad, and me…).
    • Invite two students to share their family structures.
  • Conclude that families may look different, but they are all based on love and care.

2. Cover Reveal

  • Display the book cover A Family is a Family is a Family and ask:
    • What do you notice on the cover?
    • Have you heard the phrase “A family is a family is a family” before? What do you think it means?
  • Record students’ predictions on a wonderings page or butcher’s paper.
  • Explain that this book will help them explore different family structures over the next few lessons.
  • Encourage curiosity by prompting students to ask questions using “I wonder…”
    • I wonder if all the children on the cover are brothers and sisters?
    • I wonder if the lady is holding her son?

3. My Family Tree

  • Show an example of a completed family tree.
  • Clearly explain expectations and steps for creating their own.

4. Wrap-up

  • If time allows, invite a few students to share their family trees with the class.

Extensions

My Family Tree activity can be taught as a single lesson. See My Family Tree for more details.

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Units of Work

Related Activities

AC9EFLY05 (English – Foundation) AC9HSFK01 (Humanities and Social Sciences – Foundation) AC9HSFS04 (Humanities and Social Sciences – Foundation)

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