Experience Instructions - Family Portrait

Tune In

Choose a book to read to your students that shows a family. Some options include:

My Deadly Boots by Carl Merrison
Are We There Yet? by Allison Lester
Possum Magic by Mem Fox

Once you have read the book, ask the children about the family shown in the book. Who are the family members? Can you describe the different members? For example, in Possum Magic, you could describe the mum as cuddly, busy, loving, or supportive.

Explain to the children that today we will be sharing about our families. Share the photograph of your family and explain who the different members of your family are.

It is a good idea to think about the boundaries you want to set when sharing information about your family with children. Sharing information about your own family helps to build connections and demonstrate to the children in your care that this is a safe place where we can talk about our families, however, we all know families can be complicated. You might choose to stick to talking about your pets!

Ask the children: "Who is in your family?" Choose children to share the members of their families. Once a few children have shared, ask the group, "Why are all of our families different?"

Emphasise that every family is special and unique. Explain to the children, "Just like in nature, where every tree, flower, and rock is unique, so are our families. Today, we’ll use items from nature to show who is in our family."

Find Out

Optional: Take the children outside on a short nature walk to collect small, non-alive items that catch their eye (e.g., leaves, twigs, pebbles). It can be a good idea to give each child a small container like a cup, and explain they can only take things that will fit in their cup. Explain that the natural items are borrowed from nature and should be returned after use, just like returning a library book.

Preparation: Set up a station with a piece of coloured paper taped down at each place. If you are using pre-collected nature items, put these in baskets in the middle of the table. Make sure you have a pen and a camera ready.

Demonstrate to the children how you would represent your family (e.g., a stick for Dad, a small stone for a sibling, a flower for Mom). Explain how each item represents a family member. Use the pen to write the name of each family member next to their item and your name at the top of the page. Take a photograph of your nature family, and show the students the picture. Return your nature items to their container, reminding the children that we have borrowed these and will be returning them.

Now it’s their turn! Children choose natural items from the collection to represent their family members and arrange them on their piece of paper. Have an educator talk with the children about who is in their family and write their names next to the items. Remember to write the child’s name as well! Then take a photograph of their family.

This is a great opportunity to build digital literacies with children. You can guide the children to take the photographs themselves, let them help by pressing the bottom while you hold the device, or even just talk through the stages of taking a photograph.

Take Action

Print out the photographs and create a display, on a wall, in a window, in a folder, or in an online gallery. Invite each child to share their nature family portrait, explaining who each item represents. Discuss how everyone’s family is different and how nature inspired their artwork.

After creating their portraits, invite children to reflect on how the materials helped them tell their story and why it's important to return them. Hold a "nature treasure return" walk, where children place their items back into their original or new locations.

Building Belonging: Nature Family Portrait

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Curriculum Mapping

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