Looking to help your kids explore their family history? A traditional family tree project can get a little boring, but thankfully, the family tree has been reinvented! Check out these easy and fun ways to make learning about family history fun for your kiddos! From paintings and scrapbooking to homemade puzzles and games, these fantastic family tree activities offer fun ways to educate kids about their very own personal histories! Which ones stand out for your class?
1. Scrapbook
Scrapbooking is not only super fun but it’s a great way to get your class’ creative juices flowing. A family tree scrapbook can be made up of family photos, stories, baby pictures, and any other mementos that have a special meaning. There’s room for whatever your kids can think up.
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2. Family Wall Décor
A family tree gallery is a great way to celebrate all your kiddos’ families and your class community! With permission from home, they’ll enjoy bringing in photos from family vacations, holidays, or other special occasions to discuss and add to the gallery! Bonus points for adding some clip art and fun fonts in the photo captions.
Learn More: YouTube
3. Make A Family Book
For your youngsters, a family book is a fun and engaging way to get your kids started! Let them draw and color various family members and some of their favorite things! The kids will love sharing what they’ve created with the rest of the class!
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4. Personalized Placemats
Final products that have a functional purpose are always a big hit! Why not have your class make unique family tree placemats to gift to family members? For your older learners, you could even incorporate tools such as Canva or Adobe Illustrator to have them make borders and practice their design layout skills.
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5. Film A Family Documentary
Lights, camera, and action! Encourage your future cinematographers to get creative by working on a family documentary! They’ll get to interview their family members and capture them using smartphones then edit these together into their final project! This is sure to be fun to watch both in school and at home.
Learn More: Family Tree
6. Fill Time Capsule
Ah, the everlasting time capsule! Inspire your little historians to preserve and celebrate their families’ memories to be discovered later on! You can make this project as simple or elaborate as you wish. Have them brainstorm a list of things they might add like trinkets, letters, recipes, old postcards, or baby items; you’ll be amazed at what your kiddos come up with!
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7. Create A Family Website or Blog
Your digital natives will jump at this opportunity! A family tree website is an awesome idea that’ll not only help your kids learn about their families but also give you the chance to teach some IT lessons. The beauty of this idea is that they can customize the design and content to reflect their family and can share it with members who live out of state!
Learn More: Family Tree
8. Family Map
Inspire your kids to put their family on the map! Get them to create a personalized map of all the important places within their family history— where people lived, where they were born, and other important milestones! It’s a great way to celebrate their roots!
Learn More: Crate & Kids Blog
9. Sequence A Family Timeline
How about getting your learners to map out all the big milestones in the lives of different family members with a timeline activity? Get them to place these events into chronological order on their family’s timeline and they could even add in two or three historical events that might have overlapped family ones!
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10. Piece Together a Puzzle
Have your class make their own family tree-themed puzzle with a few basic art supplies and family pictures. But do make sure they use digital downloads or scan the original glossy ones—you don’t want anyone to get grounded, after all! If your family tree unit happens to take place near any holidays, this will also make a great gift!
Learn More: YouTube
11. Decorate A Real Tree
Want a real tree in your classroom? Take a trip to your local greenhouse this weekend and pick up a potted Fig Tree or a Norfolk Spruce then get your kiddies to create ornaments representing their family members. Encourage them to include key information on the back before hanging them on branches to make it a whole class family tree!
Learn More: Artful Kids
12. Craft a Pop-Up Book on Family
Help your students make a unique pop-up book of their family with just a few basic craft materials and a bit of patience. Your kids will need to come prepared only with a handful of family pictures to make the pop-up book. Expand the activity by having kids read their pop-ups to younger classmates during library time.
Learn More: YouTube
13. Create a Family Diorama
This one is a great at-home project and is sure to inspire some family bonding! Challenge your kiddos to create a representation of their family in a shoebox! They can be as creative as they like and use anything from photos to clay to LEGO to create their project!
Learn More: YouTube
14. DIY Guess-Who Family Edition
When in doubt, gamify it! Put your classroom Guess Who board on rotation and have your kids add family photos to the tiles. Each of them will have a few days to complete the tiles, play the game with their folks, and record it by taking some photos. This is sure to be a crowd-pleaser at home!
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