National Family Week is celebrated the week of Thanksgiving, but summer is a time when many of us see our relatives. Does your family have a family reunion planned? Whenever you get the chance to see the aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents take the opportunity to collect photos of your family members. Or this is a good project to plan ahead – once children start getting school pictures taken it might be a good idea for them to write to their cousins and ask to swap school photos.

You can make a large family tree to hang in your child’s room, or it can be a group project for your preschool class.

Materials needed:
• Photocopies of pictures of each child
• Photocopies of pictures of each child’s family
• A large piece of white paper- should be at least 3 ft. x 3 ft.
• Green paint
• Brown paint
• Sponge paint brush
• Sponges
• Glue – white or purple glue sticks
• Markers that will write on paint (black sharpies work well)

What to do:

• Make photocopies of each child and their family members
• Using green paint and the sponge paint brush draw an outline of a large and bushy tree, using the brown paint for the trunk of the tree
• Let your child or children use the sponges and green paint to fill in the green area – it should not be a solid green, instead should look a bit like light filtering through the trees
• If doing as a class project let each child find their own picture to glue on the tree, surround them with photos of their family members and glue them around the child’s photo
• Write names of the family by their photos
• If doing this as a family project let the child arrange all their family members on their tree, trying to group families together –be sure to add names

Favorite books about family trees (from Amazon):
Me and My Family Tree
The Kids' Family Tree Book
The Everything Family Tree Book: Finding, Charting, and Preserving Your Family History (Everything (Hobbies & Games))
My Family Tree Workbook (Dover Children's Activity Books)

Spending time with family helps a child to know where they come from and helps them develop relationships that can help them through their lives.