Family Portraits

This morning while playing with the baby dolls in our classroom, some of the kids started assigning roles to one another to play family. 

"You can be the mom."
"I will be the dad!"
"I will be me! We are a family."

C saw the familiar game and decided that he, too, wanted to play family. 

"Can I play too?"

"No, we already have our family, you can't play."

C turned away with a very sad face. 

"They said I can't play."

It was apparent that the kids had a certain view of what a family can look like and how many people can be in it. It sparked an idea. What do our families look like? 

The kids got to work on their family portraits. Each child carefully chose crayons varying in different shades and colors to draw pictures of their families.  

"I got mommy, daddy, Noah, Piper, and me!"

E drew 5 people lined up next to each other. They all had similar heads, arms, and legs to represent their bodies. 

V used self talk while she drew her family picture. 

"This is daddy, he has really strong legs! That's why I love him. I love mommy because she has nice smelling hair. They all have blue eyes and some of them have brown hair." 

"I am drawing me first, then dad, and mom, Lily, and Sawyer. We have 5 people in my family!"

"I have to draw mommy and daddy, and Patrick. My mommy has like yellow kind of hair, and daddy has like black hair, and Patrick has yellow hair too. I have hair like mom." 

It was great to chat a little more about each child's family. At the end of the day we read "My Family Plays Music" which sparked an entirely new conversation about what kind of instruments different family members played. We will continue to work on our family portraits and talk a little more about what a family can look like.