How to Make a Kindergarten Family Tree

Kindergarten is an exciting time in a child's life. It's often his first experience in a school setting, and school can be seen more as a place of discovery, learning and play than it is seen later in the school years. With this level of excitement staying consistent, making a family tree in school can seem like creating a treasure map of a child's own history. A teacher should encourage this attitude to make the project achieve its maximum effectiveness of education and fun.

Things You'll Need

• Construction paper
• Magic markers

Instructions

1. Give the child a piece of construction paper and a marker. The colors can be anything that works for the classroom. As an extra touch, the child may be asked--as homework--to ask his parents if there are any colors that are special or significant to the family Some families do have "colors." Ask him to then bring in complementary pieces of construction paper.

2. Give each child a ruler. She should use the ruler to make a rectangle at the bottom center of the sheet of paper. If she has siblings, she should make rectangles slightly smaller on each side of her name for each sibling.

3. Instruct the child to write his name in a center rectangle. Then write the names of his siblings in the appropriate boxes. If he does not know how to write or spell a siblings' name, help him sound and spell it out. Give each child individual attention as the others are working. This is an important aspect of the project, as it can teach the child about names of people important to him.

4. Have the child draw two boxes, using the same marker, directly above her name. She should connect the two boxes to her name and her siblings' names with a line that's drawn as straight as possible. She should write her parents' names within those two boxes. This is about as complex as a kindergarten family tree should be.

5. Ask the child to label the top of the paper with the last name of his family with the words "Family Tree of..."

Tips & Warnings

• Have the child complete the project as homework with the names of his grandparents added to the top. This can be a fun homework idea for children to do alongside their grandparents. It can also be combined with another genealogy project that helps a young child start to learn about his family history.

• Don't expect a child in kindergarten to do this project independently. It should be done alongside a partner and with the teacher's help.