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Sarah: So you have two dads? I've never heard of that before. I don't even have one dad, just a Mom and a Grandma. Wait, where's your Mom? You have one don't you?
Violet: I guess I do somewhere. My Papa says that I had a mom who wasn't able to look after me so they adopted me and we became a family.
Sarah: Don't you miss her at all?
Violet: Who, my Mom? I don't even know her so I don't really think about it. My Dad and my Papa take really good care of me.”
Big Idea: To illustrate that every family is special. We all come from different “feathers”or might look different on the outside but we can come together to celebrate and understand the diversity of family. To understand the non-nuclear and non-hierarchical family structure.
At the end of this lesson students will be able to:
Find connection to their families.
Understand that there isn’t a singular definition or configuration of family.
Materials: My Feathered Family template, construction paper, glue and markers.
Social Studies
A1.2 compare their family’s structure and some of their traditions and celebrations with those of their peers’ families (e.g., traditions/celebrations related to rites of passage, holidays, foods).
A2.2 gather and organize information on significant events, people, and/or places in their lives that contribute or have contributed to the development of their roles, relationships, responsibilities, and identity/sense of self
A3.1 identify and describe different types of families (e.g., families with one parent, two parents, no children; same-sex families; blended and multigenerational families; immigrant families; families where the parents come from different religious or ethnocultural groups)
A3.2 identify some of the significant people, places, and things in their life, including their life in the community and describe their purpose or the role they have
Health and Physical Education
C2.3 demonstrate the ability to recognize caring behaviours (e.g., listening with respect, giving positive reinforcement, being helpful) and exploitive behaviours (e.g., inappropriate touching, verbal or physical abuse, bullying), and describe the feelings associated with each
C3.3 describe how visible differences (e.g., skin, hair, and eye colour, facial features, body size and shape, physical aids or different physical abilities, clothing, possessions) and invisible differences (e.g., learning abilities, skills and talents, personal or cultural values and beliefs, gender identity, sexual orientation, family background, personal preferences, allergies and sensitivities) make each person unique, and identify ways of showing respect for differences in others
Art
D1. Creating and Presenting: apply the creative process to produce a variety of two- and three-dimensional art works, using elements, principles, and techniques of visual arts to communicate feelings, ideas, and understandings
D2. Reflecting, Responding, and Analysing: apply the critical analysis process to communicate feelings, ideas, and understandings in response to a variety of art works and art experiences
Ask your class to recall Kainoa and Mikani. They were two female birds who both wanted to have a child and care for an egg together. Every family is special. How is your family special? Prompt your students with the following questions: Who are the people who love you in your family? Who takes care of you? Do you have any animals?
Print out the Bird Outline for each student.
Print out a couple of the Feathers Outline, so that students can use as many as they need, to represent members in their family. Students are welcomed to take home the Feathers Outline as a worksheet and add who the people in their family are. As an alternative, you can pre-cut the feathers or photocopy them onto coloured paper or have students trace the feather outline onto construction paper. Each family member’s name will go onto 1 feather.
The student’s name goes into the centre of the bird body.
Students can glue the feathers with their family names and add colour onto the wings of the bird.
Modification
Students can write family names directly onto wings for younger grades or students having difficulty with cutting and glueing.
Each student can present their birds to the class and explain who’s in their family. You can hang all of the birds together in the classroom or on a bulletin board with the saying “Birds of a Feather.”