Family Tree Stack
Create your own Family Tree Stack to learn more about your ancestors! Turn it into a fun game and have family members race to see who can build their family the fastest.
Unlike a paper family tree this one starts with great grandparents and works its way up, to you!
Supplies:
- Colored Pencils
- 20 Cups
- Pen
- Glue
- Scissors (these are my favorite scissors)
- Family Member Printouts (available as a download below)
Step 1:
Select and color your family members. The person at the top will need themself, their parents, grandparents and great grandparents. You may find that you need multiple print outs to find enough members of your family.
Step 2:
Write each family members name in the box. I used maiden names to help my kids learn a little more about each women in their tree.
Step 3:
Cut each family member out.
Step 4:
Glue family members onto the cups. I used rubber cement, but a gluestick or hot glue gun would work too.
Step 5:
Start stacking! Start with the great grandparents on the bottom, and then add the grandparents to the top. You’ll notice that things start getting more spread out as you go up, but we used blank cups as spacers.
I thought my kids knew who their ancestors were – I mean we go to multiple family reunions a year, and most of their great grandparents were still alive for part of their lives! But they were totally stumped when they started stacking. Having pictures makes it a little more personal than just names on a sheet of paper they look at once a year.
This would be a great activity to use for Activity Days or even Family Home Evening.
Love this!!
This is such a creative idea. Thanks so much for being willing to share!
I love this activity for teaching children where members fall in their families. I would love to use your pictures for my daycare class, but they are also learning about diversity of peoples within families, which your printout doesn’t show.