Students can showcase their family members in activities that bring families into classrooms and give students the confidence they need to succeed. Each student can choose a family member to come to the classroom and talk about his job or a typical day. Students from all backgrounds and economic levels will enjoy hearing about the jobs of other parents or family members. When classrooms showcase family members, it teaches students more about the world while broadening their interests and horizons.
Getting families involved in classroom activities brings them into the classroom. They can help out by running a party for a holiday, reading a book during reading time or supervising the classroom while the teacher has planning time or attends a meeting. Parents can often answer different questions students have and provide real-world feedback on classroom issues.
Asking family members to come along for field trips can serve several purposes. Teachers will have extra help from parents and students will be more excited to share the trip with members of their families. Depending on the location of the field trip, family members might be able to provide more insight and experience, which can offer students a greater potential for learning.
Even when families can't be there to participate in activities, students can still share about their families and teach other students about them. Have each student present about their family. They can bring in photographs and items that reflect who their families are and what they all do together as a family. This can also be a good time to teach all students about the importance of families and the different types of families, such as nuclear, blended and nontraditional families.