Read Alouds

• Read stories with family themes to your students. These may be human families or animal families. Choose books that depict different types of families: Adoptive families, same sex parents and family members other than parents raising children. This is especially important if any of your students come from a diverse family background. After reading, discuss the different people who make up a family. Keep these books accessible to students so that they can look at them during their free play.
  
  

Show and Tell

• Ask parents to give students pictures of people in their family. In class, help students make a family tree by gluing pictures onto poster board, with students drawing branches to connect the pictures, suggests Everything Preschool.com. Once the family tree is completed, give each student a few minutes to present her family tree to the class. Encourage students to share information about each person on their family tree. Once all the presentations are completed, hang the family trees around the classroom.
  
  In addition, invite family members to visit the classroom and share some of the things that make their family unique. If possible, have a meal with students and families that features family-style dining, in which participants sit together and serve themselves from dishes set out on the table.
  
  

Holidays

• After a holiday or special event, ask parents to send pictures of their family celebration. Create a holiday class scrapbook, and ask each student to make a page for each holiday they celebrate, such as the Fourth of July, Christmas or Kwanzaa. Help each student glue pictures onto construction paper and decorate with markers, glitter or paint. This also provides teachers with an opportunity to teach students about multicultural holidays, and for students to share their diverse backgrounds with their classmates. Keep the books on the bookshelf for students to look at during playtime.
  
  

Dramatic Play

• Encourage students to use the family theme during their play. In the dramatic play center, provide clothing and other supplies so that students can take on the role of mother, father, sister, brother, grandfather, grandmother and so on. Include purses, briefcases, and a baby stroller, as well as common household items like cooking utensils and telephones. Encourage students to switch roles so that each student experiences what it is like to be a different family member.
  
  

Dolls

• Cut out several plain doll shapes out of paper. Provide yarn, markers, crayons and other art supplies, and ask students to make a doll for each member of their family, suggests Preschool Rainbow.org. Ask questions to help students make their dolls. For example, you might ask, "What color is your mommy's hair?" and then encourage students to glue the corresponding color of yarn on the doll's head. As you guide students through this activity, talk about how the dolls in each students' family are similar, and how they are different. For example, you might say, "You and your father have the same color eyes, but your mother has green eyes."