(Grades 2-6)

Assign kids the project of creating their own family tree. Start by having them confer with their parents and/or other family members to get a list of all their relatives and their relationship to the child, going back into the past at least 3 generations, and out at least 3 degrees of separation (i.e., immediate family, aunts, uncles and cousins, then second cousins and relatives). Encourage them to also gather some pictures along the way if they can. All of this will probably require a bit of work, so you should give your class a week or so to do it, bringing in whatever new information they have gathered each day.

Once they’ve gathered this data, now it’s time to have them assemble it into a family tree. Give each child a large poster-size piece of b_tcher paper, and have them start penciling in their relatives and framing the outline of their tree, beginning with their immediate family positioned at the bottom in the middle. Kids will need some help getting everyone into the right position, and have some big erasers on hand, because there are likely to be mistakes. Once they have everything penciled into the proper spot, go over it in pen or marker and tape/glue any pictures you have into the proper spot. Finish it off by having kids title their poster and add any artistic decorations if they wish.

Once their family tree is completed, use it as the basis for the following projects:

• Class presentation
  Have kids give a presentation to the rest of the class showing their family tree and talking about its different members and any surprises they found along the way.
• Write a family member
  It’s all but certain this project will alert kids to the existence of extended family they’ve had little contact with. Have them write one or two of these family members a letter, asking them some questions about their life. If they respond, have kids talk about this with the class.
• Extended stories
  Each of these nodes on their family tree represents a life filled with stories…stories they’ve never heard before. Have kids confer with their parents or call these relatives directly to ask about interesting experiences they’ve had or true stories they can relate. Then have kids either tell these stories to the class or write up an essay describing each one.