Family Play Set · Free Classroom Activity Guide

Free educator resource · Ages 3+ · Preschool and Pre-K

The Classroom Activity Guide for the My Family Builders 32-piece Family Play Set, multicultural magnetic wooden figures of adults and children in four skin tones, gives teachers seven ready-to-lead activities about family, friendship and fairness, each aligned to a named goal from the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (HSELOF). No cards and nothing to print: every activity runs on the set alone, takes 10 to 20 minutes, and is written to be led straight from the page.

Download the guide (free PDF, 13 pages)

Written for teachers of ages 3 to 5+. Program staff, home educators, and families will find it just as useful. Works with the 32-piece magnetic wooden Family Play Set.

What the guide covers

The seven activities run in an escalating arc: a child’s own family first, then who a person stays when everything about them changes, imagining a family member, feelings, observation and memory, describing and deducing, and finally what fair means when there is only one of something. The set carries two generations, so family work and friendship work both live here. Each person in the set exists exactly once, and every top and bottom is different too, so when two children want the same piece, the problem is genuine, not staged. Because the figures have neutral faces, emotion work is authored by the child: the guide never tells children what a figure feels; it gives them the words to decide for themselves. Across all seven activities, the outcome the set builds toward is empathy: seeing one’s own family clearly, meeting families and people who look different, and talking about both comfortably.

The seven activities at a glance

# Activity Ages Players Time Aligned primarily to In plain words
1 Look at My Family! 3+ 1 or more 10 to 15 min P-SE 11 Build your own family, then one that looks different
2 Mix-Up People 3+ 1 or more 10 to 15 min P-ATL 12 Silly swaps; clothes and size change, the person stays the same
3 Who’s Coming Home? 3+ 1 child + facilitator 10 to 15 min P-SE 11 Imagine and build the person a family is waiting for
4 Someone Feels 3+ 1 or more 10 to 15 min P-SE 6 Decide how someone in the family feels today and tell why
5 Who Changed? 4+ 2 or more 10 to 20 min P-ATL 8 Study the people, spot the secret change
6 Guess My Person 4 to 5+ 2 10 to 20 min P-LC 6 Yes and no questions to name the chosen person
7 Work It Out 5+ 2 or more 15 to 20 min P-SE 5 One piece, two children who want it, a fair solution they choose

HSELOF alignment: which goal each activity develops

The activities in this guide are aligned to the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework: Ages Birth to Five, published by the Office of Head Start, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Each activity names the goal it most directly supports so the activities fit into the planning a program already does. The seven activities carry cited goals across four ELOF domain families: Social and Emotional Development; Approaches to Learning; Language and Communication; and Perceptual, Motor, and Physical Development.

Activity Primary HSELOF goal Also supports What it develops
1. Look at My Family! P-SE 11 · Child has sense of belonging to family, community, and other groups. P-SE 9, P-LC 6 Children build their own family, then a different one. Building is belonging work; comparing is multi-group identity work.
2. Mix-Up People P-ATL 12 · Child expresses creativity in thinking and communication. P-ATL 9, P-PMP 3 Silly swaps, including big-small mixes, that land identity constancy: the person stays the same person.
3. Who’s Coming Home? P-SE 11 · Child has sense of belonging to family, community, and other groups. P-ATL 13, P-LC 5 Children imagine and build the person a family is waiting for. The choice is family-composition projection.
4. Someone Feels P-SE 6 · Child expresses a broad range of emotions and recognizes these emotions in self and others. P-LC 5, P-ATL 13 The child chooses and names a feeling for someone in a family, then imagines how the family responds.
5. Who Changed? P-ATL 8 · Child holds information in mind and manipulates it to perform tasks. P-ATL 6, P-LC 5 Holding a lineup of up to eight figures in mind and finding the secret change.
6. Guess My Person P-LC 6 · Child understands and uses a wide variety of words for a variety of purposes. P-LC 3, P-SE 3 Yes-and-no questioning with descriptive vocabulary across size, skin tone, hair, and clothing.
7. Work It Out P-SE 5 · Child uses basic problem-solving skills to resolve conflicts with other children. P-ATL 4, P-SE 8 Every person exists once and eight figures stand at most; children negotiate what fair means when a wanted piece is genuinely scarce.

HSELOF goals cited in this guide

Goal text quoted in full from the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework: Ages Birth to Five, Preschooler sub-framework, headstart.gov. Accessed July 10, 2026.

  • P-SE 3 · Child engages in and maintains positive interactions and relationships with other children.
  • P-SE 5 · Child uses basic problem-solving skills to resolve conflicts with other children.
  • P-SE 6 · Child expresses a broad range of emotions and recognizes these emotions in self and others.
  • P-SE 8 · Child manages emotions with increasing independence.
  • P-SE 9 · Child recognizes self as a unique individual having own abilities, characteristics, emotions, and interests.
  • P-SE 11 · Child has sense of belonging to family, community, and other groups.
  • P-ATL 4 · Child manages actions, words, and behavior with increasing independence.
  • P-ATL 6 · Child maintains focus and sustains attention with minimal adult support.
  • P-ATL 8 · Child holds information in mind and manipulates it to perform tasks.
  • P-ATL 9 · Child demonstrates flexibility in thinking and behavior.
  • P-ATL 12 · Child expresses creativity in thinking and communication.
  • P-ATL 13 · Child uses imagination in play and interactions with others.
  • P-LC 3 · Child varies the amount of information provided to meet the demands of the situation.
  • P-LC 5 · Child expresses self in increasingly long, detailed, and sophisticated ways.
  • P-LC 6 · Child understands and uses a wide variety of words for a variety of purposes.
  • P-PMP 3 · Child demonstrates increasing control, strength, and coordination of small muscles.

Recognition and alignment

  • Parents’ Choice Gold Award. The oldest nonprofit children’s product review program in the United States.
  • ECERS-3 · Item 26. Promoting Acceptance of Diversity. Four skin tones exceed the three-race minimum.
  • ITERS-3 · Item 23. Infant and toddler acceptance of diversity.
  • FCCERS-3 · Item 23. Family child care acceptance of diversity.
  • SACERS · Item 26. School-age care acceptance of diversity.
  • HSELOF aligned. Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework, Preschooler sub-framework.

Educator review edition. You are reading an educator review edition. We are sharing it before final publication, and the next edition will be shaped by what teachers tell us. If an activity could work better in your classroom, we want to hear it: hello@myfamilybuilders.com. A Spanish edition is planned; write to the same address to receive it when it ships.

Download the guide (free PDF)

Looking for card games or children-only figures?

The 32-piece set carries families and friendships in one box. For card-guided family games, the 48-piece set includes 25 Activity Cards in English, French and Spanish and has its own guide: Classroom Activity Guide for the 48-piece set. For friendship, feelings and fairness work with children-only figures, the 16-piece Friends set has its own guide too: Classroom Activity Guide for the 16-piece Friends set. Every My Family Builders set works together.