Learn about different families

Before you begin

• Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here.
• Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
• Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.

Taking part in this activity

• Scouts is an inclusive, values-based movement and we’re open to all those who share our fundamental values. Find out more about equity, diversity and inclusion in Scouts, and learn about what Scouts are doing to support Pride. You could give everyone a Pride badge for taking part in this activity.
• Pop ‘n’ Olly have lots of resources you could use to explore LGBT+ learning.

Planning this activity

• If it’s difficult to get outside, you could collect natural objects for everyone to use. You could also ask everyone to bring some with them or use craft materials
• Make sure everyone knows what they can and can’t touch. You could ask everyone to wear gloves. You could use The Woodland Trust’s nature detectives’ tree spotter sheets and plant spotter sheets, or try the Seek app from iNaturalist.
• Make sure everyone knows to come dressed for the weather. Always check the forecast and be prepared for it to change.
• Some books you could use for this activity are ‘Mommy, Mama and Me’ by Lesléa Newman, ‘And Tango Makes Three’ by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, ‘Goldilocks and the Five Bear Families’ by Ollie Pike, or ‘The Pirate Mums’ by Jodie Lancett-Grant.

Running this activity

1. Gather everyone together. Explain to the group that you’re going to be exploring different natural materials.
2. Everyone should get into small groups, with at least one adult in each group. 
3. In the small groups, wander around and look at the different trees, plants and flowers. Ask if anyone can name any of the plants, or identify their colour or smell.
4. Ask everyone to gather together different coloured natural items, such as fallen leaves, petals, feathers, pebbles or sticks, as they can. Ask everyone to put all the leaves and natural items they’ve collected in the middle.
5. If you’re taking natural items along to the meeting place, put a mixture of different objects on each table for each group to look at, name, smell and discuss. The groups could move round every few minutes to give everyone a chance to see everything.
6. As a group, chat about what you’ve found, using the following questions as prompts:

• • What do you think is the same about all these items? You could try to categorise the items by size, colour, shape or type.
  • What differences can you spot between the items?
  • What would it be like if all these objects were the same?
  • How would you feel if there was only one type of tree in the world, or only one type of flower?
  • Which is your favourite item? Why is that one your favourite?
  • Do people like the same item or do people choose different things?

Talking about our families

1. Now, ask everyone to think about the people in the group, then ask the following questions.
   • What’s something that makes you different to everyone else in the group?
   • What’s something that makes you different?
   • What’s the same about our families? 
   • What makes your family different?
   • What would it be like if all of us were the same?
   • How can our differences make the world a more interesting place?
2. Tell everyone that, just like the natural items we found, families come in all shapes and sizes. They’re all slightly different. However, there are some things that are same too. For example, our families should all be people who make us who help us feel happy, who all love each other, and who help us to be healthy and safe.
3. Ask everyone to think of one reason why it's good that all families are different. Someone might say that it'd be a bit boring if everyone’s family were the same.
4. Ask everyone to think of one thing that makes them proud of each person they live with.
5. Explain that we need to be accepting, caring and respectful to people or families who may be different to ourselves or different to own families. This helps everyone to feel happy, proud of themselves and accepted. It helps to make the world a better place.
6. Tell everyone that some families have two mums or two dads.
7. Explain that some families that have two mums or two dads use rainbows to celebrate to show that they're proud of their family. This is because in the past, and still today, some people treat families that have two mums or two dads unfairly and unkindly.
8. Tell everyone that we can show that we support to families that have two mums or two dads. We can show that we accept them and that we’re proud of them too by choosing to display the rainbow symbol.
9. Now, use the natural items to make a rainbow.
10. Ask if anyone has have heard of something called Pride month. It’s a time when you might see lots of Rainbows. June is Pride month, and is the time of year when people celebrate families that they have two mums or two dads. There are lots of events that happen, such as parades, and you might see rainbows being displayed or worn by lots of people.
11. Ask if anyone can think of something found in nature, just like the rainbow, that they’d use to celebrate their family. For example, they might choose a flower, a wave or a mountain.