Family Portraits and Bible Stories
Author: Andrea Guerra
Content Areas: Bible Stories, LGBT Families, Jewish Values
Grades: Pre-K-1^st grade

Objective: This lesson will help students explore and affirm different family structures as they appear in the bible and in students’ own experience.

Activity 1: Read several bible stories about different families.

These can include:
Adam and Eve (Lilith)
Sarah, Abraham and Hagar
Ruth and Naomi
Rebecca and Isaac

Ask students to discuss the different members in the families.
What is the same about the families, what is different?
What do all the families share in common?  (Love, helping each other, being part of tribe)

Activity 2: Family Portraits.

Have a variety of different art supplies available to make family pictures.
Explain to students that they can include anyone in their family portrait that they think is important to them.
Have students create portraits and share their families.
Post pictures on a wall in the class and leave up for several weeks.
If your class is not particularly diverse, try to include different pictures of families that create more inclusiveness in the lesson, such as families headed by two mothers or two fathers.

Discussion questions:

How are the families the same and different?
What are different kinds of families?
What makes a family?
What do you love about your family?

When reproducing this lesson, please give credit to the author and Keshet.