Library of Congress
Loc: Immigration: Our Changing Voices
Through dialogue, documentation, research, and interviews, students understand their role in society. This unit provides a background to students' family histories and gives them an opportunity to listen to the voices of immigrants of...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: What's in a Name?
In this Curriculum Unit, students will consider "What's In A Name?" in 4 Lessons. The unit also includes worksheets and other student materials that can be found under the resource tab.
Other
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum: Herbert Hoover: Gram's Trunk
A lesson plan in how to conduct historical research using family photos and doing interviews, and newspaper stories from the past. The second part of the lesson plan is a photo analysis exercise using a photo of children and a cow.
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.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Traditions at Home and Around the World
Each student will research his/her own family traditions and report findings to the class using presentation software. In partner groups, students will select a country to research. Their research will focus on traditions of a chosen...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Exploring and Sharing Family Stories
Writing gets personal when students interview family members in order to write a personal narrative about that person.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Creating Family Timelines Graphing Family Memories
Contains plans for five 50-minute lessons that ask learners to create time lines of their own family and life histories. In addition to objectives and standards, this instructional plan contains links to PDF handouts and sites used in...
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.
Other
Ancestry: Last Name Meanings and Origins
Discover the meaning and history behind any last name.
Read Works
Read Works: Immigration Ellis Island: The Hunt for Alois Hanousek
[Free Registration/Login Required] An autobiographical account of a family looking for information about their great-grandfather. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Read Works
Read Works: Lost on Ellis Island
[Free Registration/Login Required] A literary text about a girl named Emily who learned more about her grandfather while her family was visiting Ellis Island. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading...
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...
Council for Economic Education
Econ Ed Link: Old Business, New Business
In this lesson students are introduced to several businesses from the past. They see that, while the names for these businesses are different, many of the elements of that job are seen in occupations today. The web site, "Business Cards"...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Out of the Night That Covers Me
Through the novel Out of the Night That Covers Me, students will explore the impact of racial segregation, family heritage, and the historical significance of pre-civil rights Alabama. This unit of study is recommended for students in...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Personal Heritage Project
This research project requires young scholars to connect with the past by researching both primary and secondary sources for family history. Their findings are presented in a keepsake portfolio and in a multimedia presentation comparing...
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.
Enchanted Learning
Enchanted Learning: Family Collage Craft
Children can make a great family collage by cutting out pictures of family members and gluing them to poster board. Older kids can write descriptions to accompany their collage.
Enchanted Learning
Enchanted Learning: Draw and Write About Your Family
Draw a picture of your family and write about them. Must be a subscriber to get full acess to site.
A to Z Teacher Stuff
A to Z Teacher Stuff: Family History (Lesson Plan)
In this A to Z Teacher Stuff lesson, young scholars research information about their family history, record it, and then present it orally to the class.
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Alabama Dept of Archives and History: Make Your Family Tree [Pdf]
A good way to help keep up with grand parents, great grandparents, and great-great grandparents is to draw a family tree. Here are some tips on how to make one.
Other
Family Tree Kids: Making Family History Fun
Family Tree Kids is an online magazine fro making family history fun. Learn how to make picture magnets. Stick notes to your locker with old family photographs, or build a pictorial family tree on your refrigerator. Use the link to...
TES Global
Blendspace: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
An eleven-part learning module with links to websites, an image, and a video about using questioning skills to research and write about one's family history.