Our Family Tree: Sorting Family Members

Families are a common theme in preschool. We built our family tree with repositionable photos which led to sorting our family members to learn more about how we are the same and different.

We are thrilled to be joining the Playful Preschool Education Team organized by The Educators' Spin On It! Each Wednesday we will be sharing a collection of theme based #PlayfulPreschool posts for hands on learning you can provide for your preschoolers. This week's preschool theme is family and we have a math activity that uses your child's very favorite people: your own family members!

We glued photos of our family members on apple papers (since we are still working on our apple theme). I explained that our family tree branches out by parents and children. First our preschooler sorted our own small family as well as her grandparents. This was a great way to include her sister who we miss so much into a typical family activity. 

Next I asked her to complete Daddy's family tree. She started with her paternal grandparents, organized her dad and aunt and who they are married to and added the children! Building family trees with repositionable manipulatives really gets children thinking about how familial relationships work (who is married to whom, who their children are, how spouses join our families). 

To add a bit more math we then sorted our family members by different criteria. Some categories we picked were gender, glasses/no glasses, and last names but you can choose whatever works best for your specific family. E wanted to sort by age and gender (oldest women to youngest girl and oldest man to youngest boy) so I let her take the lead for the rest of the activity.

I plan to have her label our apples with our names for a new version of our word wall to use during journal writing.

Plan your Family Theme Preschool Activities with these ideas 

from the Playful Preschool Education Team!

Family Theme Learning Activities: Reading - Writing - Cooking - Sensory - Art - Math

Bookmaking for a Preschool Family Theme from Fun A Day 

Finding My Family on a Map from Powerful Mothering

Preschool Writing Activity: Letters to Family from Mom Inspired Life

Cooking with Kids: Family Recipe Books from Growing Book By Book

Our Family Tree: Sorting Family Members from Still Playing School

Family Themed Sensory Bin from Little Bins for Little Hands

Tips for Using Skype to Connect with Family from The Educators' Spin On It

Family Portraits from Rainy Day Mum

Family Counting from Tiny Tots Adventures

Jamaican Games for Fine and Gross Motor Skills from Learning 2 Walk

Family Footprints from Capri +3

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