Curated OER
Tracing Our Own Family Pilgrimages
The Pilgrims may have arrived in North America by way of the Mayflower, but chances are, your class members' ancestors came to the United States in another way. Guide them through an exploration of their own heritage, countries of...
Curated OER
Family Culture:
Students tell about their family heritage by writing a story and illustrating it with a picture of a family item.
Curated OER
Origins and Identity
Students examine how to research their family backgrounds. They conduct interviews with various family members, create a family tree, and present their family tree to the class.
Curated OER
Family Food Favorites
Third graders conduct an interview and create a class cookbook. In this family heritage lesson, 3rd graders read Everybody Bakes Bread and discuss a dish or recipe that is a part of their family's heritage. Students interview family...
Curated OER
We Are History: Family Stories
Young scholars examine their own family heritage and share family stories with the class. They differentiate between primary and secondary sources, and bring in and write about three artifacts from their family. They conduct an...
Curated OER
Heirlooms
Learners design a quilt square to reflect their special memory. In this family heirlooms lesson, students read The Patchwork Quilt and discuss the importance of family involvement in creating a family heirloom. Learners write and publish...
Curated OER
Where I Come From
Students discuss the countries and cultures that are part of their family history. They research the country their family "came from" and write a report.
Curated OER
Del Corazon
Young scholars examine family traditions. They develop a list of family traditions, explore an artist website, read a biography about a selected artist, write a description and critique of an art piece, and write a description of a...
Curated OER
Young Author Books: I Am a Leaf on My Family Tree
Fourth graders create family tree books. They discuss culture and brainstorm interview questions for family members. They write stories, poems, and captions for family photos. They interview family members and assemble the interviews...
Curated OER
Ancestor Project"
Students research their family heritage and bring in photocopies of items representing their families. They create an attractive, artistic collage using these images.
Library of Congress
Loc: American Folklife Center
Set up to assist American families in tracing their family histories, this extensive guide explains how to begin the process, to conduct research, tp take oral interviews, and to locate and analyze documents.
PBS
Pbs: Roots in the Sand
Online companion to a documentary film about Punjabi-Mexican immigrants who settled in California.
Other
The Statue of Liberty Ellis Island Foundation: Genealogy Learning Center
How did your family come to America? When did they arrive? Chances are, they came into America by boat through Ellis Island. Check here for suggestions to get your family history research going.
Scholastic
Scholastic: Lesson Plans: We Are Family, Grades K 1
A collection of activities that help students learn about their families. Includes links to reproducibles that are used with some of the activities.
Other
Genealogy Today
A great resource for families who are tracing their family tree. Get started by reading tips on organizing and connecting with fellow family tree searchers.
Other
Statue of Liberty Ellis Island Foundation: Family Histories
Follow the stories of six Americans with different backgrounds who wanted to know more about their ancestors' journeys to America and used immigration and genealogy records to complete their family histories.
Other
Teaching Tennessee History: Lesson Plans for the Classroom Volume Vii [Pdf]
Between 1860 and 1910, America began to see an increase in the number of immigrants coming to America for a better life, religious freedom, and a brighter future for their families. It is estimated that about twenty-three million...
Other
Creating a Family History
What do you know about creating a family history? This site offers a complete lesson plan for developing a sense of how your own family history fits into the bigger picture of the world's history.
Other
Americans All
Historians fear that current and future generations will no longer share their family stories. Americans All is program schools can join to encourage preservation of family legacy to continue history of heritage and culture.
Utah Education Network
Uen: Lesson Plan: Patricia Polacco's Family Stories
Lesson that helps students understand that families have both differences and similarities and reinforces the concept that family traditions are part of a student's heritage. Students discuss stories by Patricia Polacco and make...
Utah Education Network
Uen: Lesson Plan: Crayon Box: Family Diversity
Lesson that helps reinforce the idea that families are diverse and have many different types of traditions. Students discuss The Crayon Box That Talked by Shane DeRolf, talk about their family traditions, and draw and write about their...
Utah Education Network
Uen: Lesson Plan: Celebrating Family Traditions
This instructional activity helps students explore the traditions that their families have. Students discuss that there are many types of families, complete questionnaires about their families' traditions with a parent or guardian, and...
Volunteer Voices
Volunteer Voices: My Heritage Notebook [Pdf]
In this instructional activity, students will recognize the importance of the family in community situations through personal interviews, creating a personal history with pictures and text.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Where I Come From
This lesson plan directs children to learn about their family histories by visiting sites that connect them to the homelands of their ancestors.