On my PowerPoint is a picture of my family in Ramadan taken last week. I greet the students and ask them if they are enjoying their Ramadan outings with friends and family. I tell my students that last week, I was invited to my aunt's house and we had a big family gathering. It was so much fun, and I wish we can do it again soon. I show them a picture of my family and say: "This is my family. I love my family. I like spending time with them. This picture was taken this Ramadan. We look really hungry here!" Then, I tell them a funny story about my cousin's daughter who is only 3 years old, and managed to take money from everyone stuffing it into her jeans. I show them her picture, and end the story by telling them that she insisted that she had no money! (The money is popping out from both of her back pockets!)

On the white board is a big yet empty family tree. Let's draw together my family tree. [Note that on the board some squares are drawn in pink, others in blue for the 2 different genders ~ also all the flashcards I will stick on the board are also colour coded based on gender] [This should aid my students while they help me fill out the family tree, plus they will better associate the female words together and the male words together] I put my picture on the board, and ask: “Who do you think is my mother?” I add: "I look like my mother, so it is easy to spot her." “Who do you think is my father?” "He has short grey hair and a beard" Well done, these are my parents. The class repeats after me: "mother", "father", "parents". "I have one sister and one brother. Can you guess who they are? Funny enough, my brother looks more like me than my sister!" Cool, you have found all my siblings. The class repeats after me: "sister", "brother", "siblings". My father has only one brother. Can you guess who my uncle is in this picture? My mother has three sisters and 3 brothers. Only one brother and one sister are in this picture. Can you guess who my mother's brother is? Can you guess who my mother's sister is? Great, you have found all my uncles and aunts. The class repeats after me: "father's brother", "uncle", "mother's brother", "uncle", "mother's sister", "aunt" . The same steps are carried out for the rest of the vocabulary words: "husband", "son", "daughter", "sister-in-law", "niece", "nephew", "grandfather", "grandmother"

Students are shown a picture of their favourite show, "Modern Family". Then they are given "HandOut 1", which has the student labeled as "Claire" and they have to fill in the rest of the family tree using the vocabulary we learnt today. Students work in pairs filling in the HandOut using blue and red pens, blue for masculine nouns, and red for feminine nouns. A new word is introduced in this HandOut, which is "stepmother". After the students are finished, I will ask them (if they haven't already asked me) to guess the meaning of "step-mother" since they see the show and know who Gloria is! I add that the word "step" can be added to Manny also, who is a "step-son" to Jay! etc

Who's Who? Manny is ……….. son. Manny is ……….. stepson. Phil is Claire's ………….. . Phil is Alex's ………….... . Alex is ……………. sister. Alex is ……………. sister. Luke is ………….. son. Luke is ………….. son. BONUS fill-in: Jay is Phil's …………………………… . Alex, Hayley and Luke are Lili's ………………. .

Each student is assigned a family member, and it is stuck to their back. Students will mingle as if in a family reunion party. They will ask simple questions in an attempt to find out which family member they are! For example: "Do I have kids?" If yes, then they could be a mother, father, aunt, uncle, grandmother, grandfather, etc They ask another question: "Do I have a husband?" If yes, then they could be a mother, aunt, grandmother, etc. Then they could ask: "Do I have grandchildren?" If yes, then this person is the grandmother. Once a student knows who they are, they will move to the front of the classroom; and once everyone in the class knows who they are, they will be given a couple of minutes to interact as if they are in a family reunion! (Brushing up on their small talk skills!)

On the PowerPoint are descriptor words (adjectives for occupations and adjectives describing people both physically and their character) Students have to fill in the blanks as follows: Jay is a …….. man with short …… hair. He is ……….. . Phil is a tall man with short ……… hair. He is ………… . Alex wears …………….… and she is …………………. . Alex goes to college. She is a …………………… . Mitchell has ……….. ……….. hair. He is a ………………….. . Cam coaches the football team at Lily's school. He is a …………. ………….. . Hayley has ……….. brown hair. She is Alex's ………………. . Luke is Hayley's ……….. . Gloria is Jay's ………….. and Manny's …………………. . She is ……………………. . Lily is Mitchell and Cam's …………….. . She has ………….. black hair.

Students are then asked to: ~ Say how many family members they have [I have 3 sisters, 4 aunts and 2 uncles etc] ~ Describe themselves and their parents. I will write my example on the board: I have one sister and one brother. I have 4 uncles and 3 aunts. I have 6 cousins. I have one grandmother and one grandfather. I am tall and I wear glasses. I am an English instructor. My father is tall and has short grey hair. He is a doctor. My mother is tall and has long brown hair. She is an accountant.

Students will have to add to the paragraph they wrote in class at least 3 other family members with their descriptions (again, using the adjectives to describe people and occupations). It is important that students get an opportunity for additional free practice without a teacher standing nearby that they can easily ask for help; this way it encourages them to use other resources such as online dictionaries, online articles etc.