Family Theme in PreK

Using Wooden Peg People for Family Theme in Prek

My director found a set of wooden dolls for us to use in our classrooms this year and the family theme seems like the perfect opportunity to introduce them to my students.  This set is colorful, without being the standard rainbow bright colors.  As with most of my new items that I introduce to my students, I put these out with no additional instructions.  This allows students to explore the possibilities themselves.

You can find these wooden dolls here: (affiliate links in post)

Block Area Family Theme Play

The wooden house I use in my classroom comes from Lidl, along with its furniture.  I took out the window shutters since the students keep popping them off and then thinking its broken.  This is the most played with item in the block area so far this year.

I also add a ring of laminated photos of houses that are similar to homes in the local communities for building ideas.  Real estate websites are a great place to find photos for this idea.

Family Theme Circle Time

Our family theme starts with being part of God’s family.  Our Bible story this week focuses on the first four days of creation.  You can find out more about our Bible curriculum at Cross Connections for Early Learners.

The family photos are from Pocket of Preschool.  I appreciate the variety of families shown in these photos since we live in a diverse community.

Our letter focus is letter F and the nursery rhyme is Little Miss Muffet.  The printables to go along with the rhyme are found at Sparklebox.  New nursery rhyme unit coming soon for Little Miss Muffet.  I like to test products in my classroom before releasing them in my shops.

Math for Family Theme

The family theme counters from Learning Resources are a hit in the classroom.  I use the free mats I found on TPT for sorting.  My coworker also purchased the houses, which I have noticed have a pet that is definitely a dog.  The other set could be argued to be either a dog or a cat.

Family counters can be found here:

These magnet activities are also in the math and fine motor center.  Most activities involve more than one area of learning, so these are also helping students learn a bit about the science of magnets while they build the house and count the apples for the animals.

The top Melissa & Doug magnet center is no longer available. I could not find the farm one online.   Possible similar ideas are below.

Easel Work for Family and Letter F

This year I am turning my easel around halfway through the week.  In the past one side of the easel has been overlooked during the week because of how it faces in the room.  So far I am finding that rotating the easel partway through the week is encouraging students to use both sides.

The letter F word building is found on This Reading Mama’s site.  I cut apart and laminate the words to use them on my easel.  I am still searching for the perfect magnet alphabet set.  A retired teacher gave me these and I substituted in a lowercase letter  t that I liked better that is close in size.

For the Family theme I laminated and added magnets to these family theme cards.

Writing Center for Family Theme

Some students are ready to start working on writing words beyond their names, so I make the Family Word Cards ring available with some half sheets of paper for drawing and writing.  These are from Pocket of Preschool.

Crayon rubbing is a fun activity to practice using our hands in a different way.  These rubbing plates were at the local dollar store in a set of three.  I stick a couple samples on the wall next to this center and will need to show most students how to do this activity.  I ran out of houses several times during the week because this was popular with several students.

Letter F Activities

Our letter focus for the week is Letter F, although we also review T from last week and talk about letters in our names as well as in our poem of the week.

Scissor skill practice involves snipping strips of pictures of items that start with letter F.  You can find the letter strips pictured above at This Reading Mama.  I include blank envelopes in this center for students to gather their snips to take home.

Q-tip painting sheets are also great for poke pins as well.  I tested some Little Miss Muffet printables in this center that will be coming soon to my shop.  The letter f for frog is in my Alphabet Qtip Painting .

Craft Ideas

Check out a past Family Theme post to see our house built with our family craft.  The link also includes the printable glyph for the craft.

We also drew family portraits using the shades of people markers from Crayola.

Our Bible craft started this week with the first two days of creation pages for our creation book.   Photos of past book pages can be seen in this post.