Create Your Own Pages

Create a classroom version of A Family Is a Family Is a Family by having students write and illustrate their own pages. Working with an adult if necessary, have students compose a sentence or two describing what makes their family special. Have them illustrate their...

Sounds

Have each student take the beginning letter or sound from their first or last name and go through the book, identifying all the words that begin with that sound. Working with an adult if necessary, have them make a list of the words they know and the words they don’t...

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...