Content Area: Health and Physical Education

 

Index: 2.4A Grade 4 CPI 1

 

Standard: 2.4 - Human Relationships & Sexuality

 

Strand: A - Relationship

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator:  1 -  The student will describe different kinds of families and discuss how families can share love, values, and traditions, provide emotional support, and set boundaries and limits.

 

Grade: 4

 

Sample Activities:

 

·        THE SHAPE OF MY FAMILY - Prepare a worksheet that resembles a quilt, with each square of the quilt representing a different family member. Place the name of one family member (e.g., grandmother, brother, uncle) in each square. (There should be enough different family members to fill about 25 boxes.) Using a variety of colors, students color the appropriate squares that represent their family members. After completing the task, students circulate without talking, looking for a quilt similar to theirs. Relate the different quilts to the different kinds of families, and emphasize that all family members are important.

 

 

 

·        FAMILY GOALS - Ask students: “What is important to a family? Does your family have a goal?” Brainstorm and write family goals on the board. From the list, develop a worksheet (a sample appears below) that asks students to rate the importance of their family goals. Read each goal aloud. Students indicate (with a check) how important they think it is to their family. Students complete a second goal sheet with the help of family members.

Variation: On a sheet of white drawing paper, students draw a picture of their family and write several of their family goals. The pictures may illustrate the family achieving the goals. Combine the student illustrations to make a quilt and display it.

 

 

·        FAMILY STRUCTURES - Ask for a definition of family and write the responses on the board. Explain that there are many different kinds of families. Use student volunteers to organize examples of family units as you describe them (e.g., students role play grandparents, siblings). Use props to make the simulations more vivid. Students compare and contrast the various family structures.

Variation: Divide the class into small groups and assign each group a family structure. Each group develops a skit involving their assigned family. Provide students with enough background information to start the skit.

 

      Variation: Use children’s literature to study families throughout history. Two examples of books for this purpose are the Little House on the Prairie Series and the Dear America Series.

 

      Variation: Students research family structures while studying a particular cultural/ethnic group and present their findings to the class.

Variation: Invite family members representing various cultural backgrounds to discuss family life, traditions, and structures.

 

·        TV FAMILIES IN ACTION - Provide students and their parents with a list of television shows that illustrate various family configurations. Students watch one family television show. After viewing the show, each student writes a description of the television family (e.g., structure, characters, ages, gender, race/ethnic group). Students note where the television family lives and develop a summary of the issue or problem featured on the show. Identify the shows watched, then divide the class into groups by show. After discussing the important elements of the show, each group selects three words that describe the television family. Each group presents its ideas and observations, focusing on the three descriptive words.

Variation: Discuss how real families solve problems and compare the process with that used by television families.

 

      Variation: Use the following questions to trigger discussion or journal writing: “What roles are played in the various TV families? Do any of the television parents hold nontraditional jobs? What problems do the TV families face? Did any of the families have the same problem but reach a different solution?”