ESL Kids Beginner (A1) Unit: My Family

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Teach Family Vocabulary, Relationships, and Grammar Through Fun, Real-Life Contexts

About This ESL Unit

The “My Family” unit from SuperEnglishESL.com helps beginner-level ESL students explore and talk about their families with confidence. Through relatable stories, rich vocabulary, grammar practice, and interactive exercises, students learn to describe their family members, talk about relationships, and use past tense in meaningful ways.

This five-lesson unit is perfect for online ESL classes, in-person group lessons, or 1:1 tutoring. It supports English Language Learners (ELLs) in mastering key topics like mother, father, siblings, twins, married, in-laws, and more—all while building phonics, reading comprehension, and sentence structure skills.

👪 Unit Breakdown: Lesson by Lesson

Lesson 1: Parents, Siblings, and Family Roles

In this foundational lesson, students are introduced to key vocabulary such as parents, son, daughter, brother, and sister. Through reading and interactive Q&A, they learn to describe their own family using simple past tense and possessive structures.

Highlights:

• ✅ Warm-up: Family vocabulary memory game

• 📖 Reading: “What Is Everyone Doing?” – Mom checks on her kids and husband around the house

• ✨ Vocabulary: Parents, son, daughter, brother, sister

• 📚 Grammar: Simple past tense – “What did she give?”, “Where did he go?”

• 🔤 Phonics: SPL blends (splash, splat, splendid)

• 🎲 Interactive Elements: Picture-based Q&A, family tree fill-ins

• 🌍 Real-Life Application: Talking about their own family members

Lesson 2: Husbands, Wives, and In-Laws

Students explore family through the lens of relationships like married, husband, wife, and in-law. They read a story about a family picnic and learn to identify extended family members.

Highlights:

• ✅ Warm-up: Weather + time discussion (yesterday, last week)

• 📖 Reading: “Family Picnic” – extended family members gather at the park

• ✨ Vocabulary: Married, husband, wife, brother-in-law, sister-in-law

• 📚 Grammar: Past tense “get-got,” question forms (What did she get?)

• 🔤 Phonics: SPR blends (spray, spring, sprout)

• 🎲 Interactive Elements: Family relation matching games

• 🌍 Real-Life Application: Describing wedding events or extended family

Lesson 3: Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and More

Students dive deeper into extended family vocabulary such as aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, and cousin. A trip to Grandma’s house sets the stage for understanding multi-generational families.

Highlights:

• ✅ Warm-up: Word chain vocabulary review

• 📖 Reading: “A Visit to Grandma’s House” – meeting aunts, uncles, cousins

• ✨ Vocabulary: Aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, cousin

• 📚 Grammar: Past tense review (What did he use? What did they see?)

• 🔤 Phonics: Mixed SPR and SPL blends with rhymes

• 🎲 Interactive Elements: Family scenario speaking practice

• 🌍 Real-Life Application: Explaining family outings or reunions

Lesson 4: Siblings, Twins, and Being an Only Child

This lesson teaches students to compare different family sizes and talk about siblings, only children, and twins. The reading activity takes place during a school’s Family Day.

Highlights:

• ✅ Warm-up: “Name Five” game with family and daily life categories

• 📖 Reading: “Family Day at School” – students draw pictures of their families

• ✨ Vocabulary: Sibling, twin, only child, born

• 📚 Grammar: Simple past tense – “She was born in 2017.”

• 🔤 Phonics: More SPR and SPL practice with rhyme

• 🎲 Interactive Elements: Describe family members from pictures

• 🌍 Real-Life Application: Talking about birthdays, family photos, and growing up

Lesson 5: Family Assessment and Review

This lesson reviews the vocabulary and grammar from the unit. Through a variety of assessment tasks—reading, matching, phonics, and comprehension—students demonstrate their understanding in a fun and engaging way.

Assessment Includes:

• ✅ Warm-up: “Guess the Word” game using family descriptions

• 📖 Reading: “All About Families” – a nonfiction overview of family types and roles

• 🧠 Assessment Tasks:

  • Vocabulary identification (match family members)

  • Simple past tense fill-ins (get, go, see, give)

  • Reading comprehension and WH-questions

• 🔤 Phonics Review: Final practice with SPR/SPL blends

• 🎲 Interactive Elements: Tic-tac-toe, Boggle, Pictionary

• 🌍 Real-Life Application: Describing their own family tree in English

👨‍🏫 Who Is This Unit For?

• ✔️ ESL & ELL learners at A1 (Beginner) level

• ✔️ Ages 6–10, in online classes, group settings, or homeschool

• ✔️ Teachers looking to teach family-related vocabulary with real-world application

• ✔️ Perfect for building conversational and writing confidence

📂 Downloadable Materials

• 📝 Printable ESL worksheets & family tree templates

• 📚 Reading passages and fill-in-the-blank activities

• 🎲 Speaking games, role-plays, and Q&A cards

• 🔤 Phonics rhymes and blend practice (SPR/SPL)

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The “My Family” unit is the perfect way to help students build personal and meaningful connections through English. With storytelling, phonics, grammar, and interactive family-centered tasks, this unit makes learning about family both educational and heartwarming. ❤️👨‍👩‍👧‍👦📘