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Family Tree Project

Note: For a PDF version of this project suitable for printing,click here.

Overview: This project opens a conversation between caregiver and child about family connections and the uniqueness of individual relatives. In addition to seeing the connections of family members to the child through the creation of a simple family tree, the child learns about what makes their family unique by recording one unique detail about each chosen family member.

Supplies:

1. 2- 12x12 white or ivory cardstock, additional 12x12 cardstock in colors of your choice.

2. 2- 8.5x11, lightweight, white cardstock

3. Brown and Green crayons

4. Green and Brown paint or yellow, blue, black and white paint to mix for various shades of green

5. Paintbrushes

6. Plastic plates to use as a paint palette

7. Scissors/child-safety scissors

8. Glue stick

9. Circle sponge tool or stencil sponge tool

10. Brown thick marker

11. Leaf and/or apple paper punches-optional, green cardstock in various shades

12. Printer

The Steps:(Older children can complete most steps.)

1. Gather and scan photos of mom, dad, grandparents and great-grandparents. Always use copies of original photos in scrapbooking projects.

2. Print family tree PDF and details PDFon two sheets of 8.5x11 cardstock. More than one copy of details PDF can be made to accommodate more relatives you may like to include in your scrapbook. Depending on your printer, you may have to adjust printer settings to landscape and scale down to fit media.

3. Draw simple tree shape with brown and green crayons to fill most of the 12x12 cardstock. If child is of young age, use jumbo crayons so lines and curves are thick. If child is older, he/she can draw the tree.

4. Assist younger child to mix yellow and blue paints to make green. In two/three puddles, add black paint to mix darker shades of green or white paint to lighten. This step is an opportunity to teach young children about primary and secondary colors. Or, you can just use ready-made green paints.

5. Child is now ready to paint in tree with brown and a light shade of green. Don't drench paper with paint or paper will warp.

6. While your tree dries, assist child to fill in the family tree and details with parent names, grandparents, etc. While filling in the details, you can tell stories about your parents and grandparents and choose one telling detail to write down.

7. Cut and adhere photos to details rectangles.

8. When tree is dry, dip circle sponge in green paint and imprint within the tree shape. This is a great step for the kids to complete. Sponge one color at a time, over-lapping dots. Dry between colors so colors don't turn muddy. Allow entire tree to dry.

9. Cut out rectangles from PDF and place on tree in correct positions. When you like how the structure is set up, adhere with glue stick.

10. Teach child how to draw lines to connect family member to family member with brown marker. You can draw lines to resemble tree branches.

11. If you own a leaf punch and apple punch, your child can punch out leaves from various shades of green cardstock and glue them on the tree in a random fashion.

12. Use letter stickers to spell out My Family Tree.

13. Adhere details to cardstock of your choice.

14. Personalize the details page with a border of your choice. We used leftover strips of the punched leaves are used on the page as a border. Child can glue buttons, draw leaves or even create a simple border with a glitter glue pen. Adhere letter stickers to spell out About my (family members of your choice). We chose to elaborate on Joseph's grandparents.