My family: Family life

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By Lorelli Mojica — children’s poet and illustrator, and part-time early years teacher

Use these inspirational ideas to celebrate the diversity of families within today’s society

1 Family life

EYFS Area of learning > Understanding the world > People, Culture and Communities

What you need

Group size: up to six children.

‘Family life’ activity sheet; small-world people.

What to do

Ask the children to sit in a circle and put a range of small-world people in the centre. Invite the children to make a ‘family’ using the small-world figures.

Talk about the children’s different ideas of what a family is, referring to the ‘Family life’ activity sheet. Point out that there can be many different types of families – some where Mum and Dad are living together; some where there is just the one parent or carer, which could be Mum, Dad or somebody else; some where there are stepbrothers and stepsisters, and so on. Demonstrate the different types of families to the children, using the small-world figures.