There were some wonderful ideas for incorporating the families' presence in the classroom environment at Rosa Parks Preschool. I think it is so comforting and homey for the children to see their families displayed in the classroom. It makes a strong statement of mutual support and commitment to the child.
Family Tree: A simple tree painted on a canvas. Each family member makes a “finger-print” leaf.
They include aunts, uncles etc. . . So cool!
Notice to the right, there are those wonderful branches with photos of each family hanging down. Love. Love.
Hopes and Dreams Loom: I love. this. so. much! I have a warm spot in my heart for woven pieces. The parent wrote their hopes and dreams for their child on a ribbon and wove it into the loom. This is so wonderful.
I would include the teacher's hopes and dreams for the students.
Here is their documentation sheet about the loom project.
Each family has a frame and a photo picture hanging right next to the “safe place.”
Another great way to integrate the photos of the families around a safe place. Love the wheel. A rich symbol.
Hugs!
I LOVE the woven ribbons! How beautiful, and what a powerful message for kids. It would be so wonderful for them to see throughout the year as a reminder that school and home are a team.
The aesthetics are just amazing. We have a family photo board that is pretty cute, but when I see these photos, I realize how much more potential they have. Thank you so much for sharing!
Karen
Teaching Ace Blog
I love them all! Specially the family tree brunches.
Yes! They are all so beautifully done. You could even do them for your own family.
Amazing beautiful!!!!!!! looking for something for my parent to bring my community closer …
Thank you ?
Åsa Berggren
Love the family tree branches. How did you hang them up?
I love the ideas they have inspired me to begin a photo wall with the branches
Thank You
I love these family ideas. Make me think k about how I can do this for my preschool. Thanks for sharing these ideas.
Wow, I love the hopes and dreams loom! Thanks for sharing these ideas.
I love the wheel, the family pictures on the branches and the loom with wishes! I am going to incorporate all 3!
I love them all!!!!!
Soo specials!!!
There are so many ways to honor families! Please share the ways you honor your classroom families!
At our preschool we have a wooden tree which is the trunk and branches each family is given a paper leaf to hang their photo on and this is added to our tree therefore making the leaves of the tree
Love this idea!
Hi and thank you for sharing these wonderful ideas of displaying family photos and other ideas. The work of Reggio Emilia is so inspiring. Thanks Sally.
I love the “Hopes and Dreams Loom” it brings such a great sense of community. And the photo picture hanging right next to the “safe place” is such a comforting idea! Thank you.
In my two year old classroom, we laminated the family pictures and then stuck the pictures in pockets on the wall. When a child is sad, they go find their family picture and carry it around with them. When they don’t need it anymore, they stick it back in the pocket.
Oh, I love this idea! What a nice thought to know family is always around.
Beautifull and inspiring ideas… I liked the dreams and hopes idea. Im gonna do something like this also.
Thanks
Wow!! What an inspiration I will be using this idea for my classroom!!
Thanks
At our pre-school the children and their family each make a special poster at home showing family photos,favourite places and activities. They bring these to school when the child has their first visit and we choose a spot to hang it. It gives me a great way to connect with the children!
Janet, what a wonderful idea! I know the children feel honored when they share their special poster with their classmates!
We do the same thing as Janet, sending home a piece of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper. After the poster is shared, all are put into a pocket style scrapbook that I buy pretty inexpensively. It then goes in our library center. The kids look at these ALL YEAR and the scrapbook usually falls apart by the last month which is fine, since all the pages go home with the children. It takes up less wall space that way.
Can you share more about the “Safe Place “and how you help the children utilize it? Love the idea…and yes, my little ones love to bring the family photo to the lunch table to share the meal with family!
The Safe Place is a spot in the classroom for a child to have time away from the crowd. The children can choose this at any time in the day. It could be because they are tired, mad, sad, restless, for any variety of reasons. What I have found is it helped children self-regulate and seek self-soothing when needed.
Hi I want to know about program planning ideas..
That might be a great new blog post! I will add it to my list as there is so much to share!
Our classroom only has family photos only to comfort them when they miss their parent. It is a good idea to have more ideas and perspectives. Thank you.
We have a “Family Book” in our classroom that includes pictures of each child’s family and a drawing with the child’s writing about their family. The children love curling up and reading the book with friends in our comfy reading space. My colleague also started a tradition where each child brings in pictures of his/her family and things that they love doing together, the teacher then creates a beautiful puzzle that the children can do with their friends in the class. The oral language and community building that is provoked by these puzzles is amazing, so I borrowed her idea and started the tradition in our classroom too!
Love, Love, Love, those ideas…What a wonderful work!
I happened to collect the info. from the child’s parents about the strengths and weakness of the child as to better understand them and it was so helpful. Also we did family portrait in which the child was asked to draw pictures of him/her and the family. We also make a connection with the family by assigning certain projects which the child and the parent does it together and talks about it in the class.
Love what you do!
In our nursery we ask parents to fill up a ready made booklet with photos of the children from birth till now. They fill them with special family events such as birthdays, parties, weddings , holidays etc. These ‘All about me’ books create great talking points and the children get to learn about different communities.
Such goodness! Love All About Me books. Such gold.
I love the hope and dream loom
Or they can write a small letter for their kids Incase they suffer from separation at the begging of the school and this letter carries so much feelings and funny things they shared
At my Launching into Learning birth to 4 class, we have a threading area filled with natural materials. The families write their hopes and dreams on a card, tie it to some string and thread together. We then hang them from a big piece of drift wood in our entry space.
Thank you for sharing this Jessie! Sounds wonderful!
I have a class tree in my room. On this tree, I hang a small wooden frame containing a picture of each child and their family. At orientation each family is given the frame. As a family they are asked to decorate the frame any way they want and insert a family picture. On the 1st day of school these frames are hung on the tree. The children are able to see the frame they created and they find comfort knowing their family is “with them” at school. Since I teach at a Lutheran school, Bible stories are shared that bring comfort to the 18m0s. – 3yrs. that I teach.
Love the woven ribbon idea. Especially finding out the dreams and goals that the parents have for their child.
Thank you very much Joy! Very happy you enjoyed this.
I love this family present idea. It is very important for younger kids. I used to let my 3 years old students to bring back a family photo and gave them some Popsicle sticks to make a house shape photo frame by themselves then hang it around the classroom. They loved it.
Hi, how did you make your loom?
Hi Sally,
Thank you for sharing with us ma’am.
We had discussion on each family member followed by the family finger song. And then we asked the children to which finger they would like to name their respective family member. We made finger puppets and stick the photos of their family member in their respective fingers (like a gloves) they would like to choose for and for a week talk about one member of their family something unique they think. They also thanked their family after the discussion.
What I most appreciate about the hopes and dreams weaving is the moment when their child watches a parent weave the ribbon into the frame and that the final result is one piece, with all the hopes and dreams together…
Very nice ideas actually I loved the one for the family and I’m thinking to develop it for my class especially that we have this theme
These ideas are so simple yet eye catching and what a great way to make families feel part of a program. The weaving would work for staff could have question– why you like working with children
I love all your posts!! I also love to invite the parents into the classroom during the year to share their expertise. We have made family mobiles, pictures, cynotypes or sun prints, hanging branches with pictures of the family. The parents are thrilled to be involved!
Thanks for your love of children!
I appreciate natural elements such as rocks being used as children love to collect items in their natural setting outside and combining basic emotions to raw materials is open many powerful and interactive teaching moments.
I am so happy when I read this point, that it can help us for families suggestions and ideas, and more participation in children development.
yes, we have a program by the name of (RFC and PEP) in this two program parents participate and connected.
We share the children’s family in the classroom by having a “family book” for them. The family book has pictures and the kiddos create it at home with their families. It has been so helpful for hard drop-offs, and the kids really love to look at it and share it with their peers. We also do home visits before the year starts and but the pictures on the wall in the classroom.
I really love the family tree idea with the fingerprints.. so sweet, so thoughtful! I am definitely going to do that next year!
Our team makes triangles from card stock and have families write a message for the year, then we string it together to make a banner.
At the beginning of the year we ask each family to put pictures in their child’s “All About Me” book. I put the pages in sheet protectors and a cover for each child. They are then placed in our class library for the year. Anytime the kids go to the library they can grab theirs or a friends and look at it. My class LOVES to read through these.
This is a great idea! Thank you for sharing.