Story Structure

Read A Family Is a Family Is a Family to the class, paying special attention to how the story is structured. Discuss the different parts of a story, including how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action. Ask students what parts of the...

Describe the Family

Examine the illustrations of each family. As a class, describe who is in the family and what they are doing together in the illustration. How many students have done this same activity with their own families? Do you need to be a certain kind of family to do this...

Interview A Partner

Break students into pairs and have them interview each other about their families. Instruct them to ask questions to learn about their partner’s family and clarify details they don’t understand. When they are done interviewing each other, have each student tell the...

Two Page Spreads

Break students into small groups and assign each one a two-page spread from the book for closer study. Work with students to explore the following questions: Who are the characters in this scene? What is the setting? What do the words tell us about the family? What do...

Front Cover

Look at the front cover with the class. In it, the characters from the book are making letters to spell the title of the book, “A Family Is a Family Is a Family.” What do students think this illustration means? Are all the letters the same? How does this cover...