Second Grade · History · week 5

Build a family tree

Build a simple family tree showing yourself, your parents, and your grandparents.

A family tree is a chart shaped like a tree that shows how people in a family are related. You are usually at the bottom, like the trunk. Your parents branch up from you, and your grandparents branch up from them.

A family tree helps you see generations at a glance: your generation, your parents' generation, and your grandparents' generation, all connected by branching lines.

📋 For the teacher
Teach it (10–15 min):
  • Draw a simple tree shape together: trunk at the bottom, branches going up.
  • Write your child's name on the trunk, their parents on the first branch level, and grandparents on the next branch level up.
  • If a name is unknown or a family looks different than this simple pattern (step-parents, one grandparent, guardians), adjust the tree to fit your child's real family -- there is no single right shape for a family.
  • Let your child decorate the tree -- this is a craft as much as a history lesson.
Talk about it:
  • Who is on your family tree, one generation up from you?
  • Who is two generations up from you?
  • What do you notice about how the branches connect?

Mastery looks like: They can build a simple family tree correctly showing themselves, their parents, and their grandparents in the right generations.

Common stumbles: Mixing up generations (putting a grandparent on the same branch level as a parent) or leaving out real family members because the tree shape does not fit.

Homework for this lessonType it, write it with a stylus, or print it for pencil & paper.open →
Records attendance + 15 min of History for this learner.
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