My family: a short text in English for kids, with questions

The text

• This is my family. There are five of us: my mum, my dad, my sister, my grandma and me.
• My mum's name is Anna. She is a doctor. She is kind and she cooks very well.
• My dad's name is Tom. He is a bus driver. He is tall and funny.
• My sister is Mia. She is six years old. She likes drawing.
• My grandma lives with us. She tells us stories in the evening.
• We have a dog. His name is Max. He is part of the family too!
• On Saturday we go to the park together. On Sunday we visit my grandpa.
• In the evening we eat dinner together and we talk about our day.
• My family is not big, but it is happy.
• I love my family very much.

Words to teach first

• mum, dad, sister, brother, grandma, grandpa — the family words; draw the tree on the board
• doctor, bus driver — the two jobs in the text; add the parents' real jobs from the class
• kind, tall, funny — one adjective per person
• six years old — the age pattern the children will reuse
• together — act it: arms around a neighbour
• There are five of us — teach it as one piece

Questions about the text

• How many people are in the family? (Five.)
• What is Mum's job? (She is a doctor.)
• How old is Mia? (Six.)
• Who tells stories in the evening? (Grandma.)
• Where does the family go on Saturday? (To the park.)

Three things to do with it

• Who is it? Read a sentence without the name; the class says who: "He is a bus driver." (Dad) "She is six." (Mia) "He is part of the family too." (Max)
• Family tree. Each child draws their own with a label and one word per person: "Mum — kind", "Grandpa — funny". The tree becomes the plan for the text.
• My family, six lines: "This is my family. There are ___ of us. My ___ is ___. My ___ is ___ years old. On ___ we ___. I love my family."

What your pupils will get wrong, and why

Age is the trap in this text, in three different ways. Spanish and Arabic speakers say "She has six years", because that is how their languages say it. Russian speakers say "She six", dropping both "is" and "years old". Teach "is … years old" as one unbreakable piece. Then jobs: Spanish speakers drop the article ("She is doctor"), as Spanish does with professions. And names: "My mum her name is Anna" from Arabic speakers, who are translating "ummi ismuha" word for word.