In a column down the left side of the board list out all the types of relationships, eg., mother, father, etc. and give a quick drill. You could add in husband - wife if you wanted to. Mentally divide the rest of the board into three horizontal sections - top, middle and bottom. Oh yes, don't forget to leave a small space at the bottom for the dialogue later. In the top section draw a man and a woman. They don't have to be great pictures, just stick figures will do. These will end up being the grandparents of the family. In the center section draw two sets of men and women and space them evenly across the board, eg., ......M1W1..............M2W2....... These will be the mothers and fathers of our family. And in the lower section draw two boys and two girls under each mother and father. This allows for 'brother - brother' and 'sister - sister' later.

Now, with a different color marker start, defining the family relationships. (I like to use a different colored pens for two reasons. One is to separate different kinds of information in my graphs, tables, drawings, etc., and the other is to make the presentation more colorful and therefore more attractive.) Start from the top and work down. Identify the couple at the top as father and mother. Draw a line from this couple to woman1 and elicit the relationship from the students (mother, father - daughter). Draw another line from the top couple to man2 and again elicit response (mother, father - son). Draw a line from woman1 to man2 and elicit brother, sister. Repeat this process for levels two and three. These relationships should be lines and labled.

With another colored marker (this is new stuff and therefore requires a different color) start marking in niece, nephew, uncle, aunt and cousin. Again, these relationships should be lined and labled. Now give another short drill of the words in the left hand column.

Yes, I know, so far this all sounds very ordinary and pedestrian. We'll get to the hook now. The hook is in the naming of the people drawn on the board. With yet another colored pen name the figures on the board after the students. If you have more figures than students start naming them Bill, Bill1, etc. True, its not much of a hook but the kids seem to enjoy it.

Now its time for the practice. Begin with something simple, use a sentence like, John is Mary's (cousin). You don't even have to write this sentence on the board as its only four words and the students already know all but one of them. You should start off pointing to the figures on the board as you say the sentence, "John is Mary's (pause - hoping for a student to answer) (cousin). After you've done this a few times, hand it over to the students and let them run with it. When they're comfortable with this give them a more complex structure to have fun with.

Q: Who is Bill's cousin?
A: Tom is Bill's cousin.

Q: Who is Bill's cousin's mother?
A: Sarah is Bill's cousin's mother.