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The Family

Activity type: This is a pair work activity in which students practice a lexical set to describe the family.


Level: Beginner students and above


Teacher's notes:

  1. Bring in photographs of your family to class. Place them on the floor in front of the students or if it is easier, stick them onto the board.
  2. Tell the students to look at the pictures and to tell you who they think the people in the pictures are.
  3. Once they have done this for a few minutes, hold up one picture at a time and explain the relationship of the person in the picture to you i.e. mother, father, brother sister, cousin, uncle etc.
  4. Highlight each noun as you say it and ask the students to repeat it after you. Put the items into sentences e.g. ‘This is my brother’ ‘This is my sister’ etc.
  5. Highlight ‘my’ and mime this meaning of possession. This meaning of possession will be needed when the possessive‘s’ is used later in the activity.
  6. Ask the students to repeat the sentences that you say. After a few minutes, begin to draw your family tree on the board. Look at the example below. This will help to further clarify the meanings of the lexical items.
  7. As you draw, go over the nouns again. Show the students how the diagram is drawn i.e. "&" means marriage and lines in front of a name mean that he/she is the child of the married couple above.
  8. Then point to two names e.g. Beth and Steven and try to elicit the relationship between the two. (The answer is niece and uncle). Point at the others in the tree and try to elicit as many different relationships as possible.
  9. Put the nouns into a sentence e.g. Beth is Steven’s niece. Get the students to repeat this sentence a few times and then elicit even more sentences. Highlight the possessive‘s’.
  10. Write a sentence on the board and highlight the possessive‘s’. Try to mime that this shows possession. Do this by pointing at the person and then yourself.
  11. Go over some more sentences orally. Put the students in pairs; tell them to finish the sentences below using the family tree. This will provide a written record of the language.
  12. Go over the answers.
  13. Then ask the students to each draw their own family tree. Tell them to use the family tree below as a model.
  14. Once they have done this, put the students back into pairs and ask them to describe their own family trees.
  15. At the end of this activity, ask some of the students to explain their trees to the whole group.


NOTE: for homework you could ask the students to bring in family photographs to class. Ask them to write out sentences about their families at home and bring them into class to show to the rest of the students. This is a nice bonding activity.

Answers:

  1. Finn is Jo's cousin.
  2. Molly is Beth's great grandmother.
  3. Lesley is Colm's wife.
  4. Colm is Lesley's husband.
  5. Jack is Jo's cousin.
  6. Finn is David's nephew.
  7. Arthur is David's father-in-law
  8. Arthur is Steven's father.
  9. Molly is Arthur's mother-in-law
  10. Jacky is Jack's aunt.
  11. Arthur is Jack's grandfather.
  12. Lesley is Finn's mother.
  13. Mary is Finn's grandmother.
  14. Steven is Beth's uncle.








/ for easy printing, the activity is on the following page /











Look at the family tree and finish these sentences.

  1. Finn is Jo's _________________________.
  2. Molly is Beth's _________________________.
  3. Lesley is Colm's _________________________.
  4. Colm is Lesley's _________________________.
  5. Jack is Jo's _________________________.
  6. Finn is David's _________________________.
  7. Arthur is David's _________________________.
  8. Arthur is Steven's _________________________.
  9. Molly is Arthur's _________________________.
  10. Jacky is Jack's _________________________.
  11. Arthur is Jack's _________________________.
  12. Lesley is Finn's _________________________.
  13. Mary is Finn's _________________________.
  14. Steven is Beth's _________________________.
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