I’ll never forget hugging a crying child during my first year of teaching. We were making Mother’s Day cards. Hers had died of cancer 2 years before. We were both heart broken. In my 38 year career since, I have tried several things to keep this from happening again.
Families Today
Today, up to 40% of students live in what we call a “nontraditional family”. Care givers could be two dads, two moms, grandparents, aunts or uncles, or foster care. This makes “Mother’s Day” and “Father’s Day” ripe with problems. Our job as teachers is to serve the students. The idea of honoring your primary care giver is beautiful. We just need to tweak our lessons to fit the population today.
You would never have a bathroom that only 6 out of 10 kids could use. By the same token, we need to widen the scope of our celebration lessons, to meet the needs of all students.
Mothers & Others
You might think, “I just have one student”, but that makes is worse, not better. Inclusive activities make everything better. Your class runs on a base of acceptance. You worked hard in August and September to make sure everyone fit into your group. This idea is just an extension of that. It doesn’t take a lot of work, just make sure the resources you buy include some editable pages that kids can use to fit their unique family.
Click on the photo on the right to take a look at my “Mother’s & Others” paper bag book project. There are eight page choices where students fill in who does what at home, then illustrates. They turn out SO cute!!
I hope you got a few ideas you can use. If you enjoyed reading, and would like to see more, go here. Happy Teaching!!
