Easter Sunday has come and gone, and, if you are like my family, you may have a healthy collection of plastic colored eggs left over from various hunts in which your kids may have participated. That was certainly the case in our house this past weekend, so I decided to set a bunch of the eggs aside to use for another family tree activity that can be used with a range of different age children.
If you are interested in trying it with the kids in your life, here are the supplies I used:
- Plastic colored eggs
- Scissors
- Glue stick
- Black permanent marker
- Construction paper or cardstock in the same colors as the eggs
- Family photos
The first thing I did was to decide which and how many family members I wanted the kids to identify. I decided to use both my and my husband's immediate family members (and their spouses/children), as well as my husband's grandparents, who my kids know and visit occasionally. I ended up needing 28 eggs. Who to include in your family is completely up to you; and remember, you can always make MORE and only bring out a few at a time so that the child isn't overwhelmed by too many at once.
I then wrote the name of each family member on an egg using the black permanent marker. I used the terms by which the kids would know each person. For example, for my brother, I wrote "Uncle Jeff." For their cousins, I wrote "Cousin Nolan." I also made eggs for each of my kids and put their names on them, along with the words "son" and "daughter" and "brother" and "sister."
If you are interested in trying it with the kids in your life, here are the supplies I used:
- Plastic colored eggs
- Scissors
- Glue stick
- Black permanent marker
- Construction paper or cardstock in the same colors as the eggs
- Family photos
The first thing I did was to decide which and how many family members I wanted the kids to identify. I decided to use both my and my husband's immediate family members (and their spouses/children), as well as my husband's grandparents, who my kids know and visit occasionally. I ended up needing 28 eggs. Who to include in your family is completely up to you; and remember, you can always make MORE and only bring out a few at a time so that the child isn't overwhelmed by too many at once.
I then wrote the name of each family member on an egg using the black permanent marker. I used the terms by which the kids would know each person. For example, for my brother, I wrote "Uncle Jeff." For their cousins, I wrote "Cousin Nolan." I also made eggs for each of my kids and put their names on them, along with the words "son" and "daughter" and "brother" and "sister."
Next, I needed to find photos of all of these people. All of my recent photos are in digital form, so I went to the computer. You want to use clear photos in which the person is looking pretty much straight-on at the camera. When I found a good photo to use, I cropped it so that it was basically only a 'headshot' of the person. I printed out the edited version on plain white paper - photo paper isn't necessary - and I glued it on cardstock that was about the same color as the egg. (Make sure your photos are small enough to fit inside your eggs. It's ok if you have to roll them up a little, but make sure their height is not taller than the egg.)
So, how did I use this 'game' with each of my children? For my six year old son, we laid out all of the photos and eggs on the floor. He chose an egg and had to READ what it said (I helped him with the words and names he did not recognize.) Then, he had to find the correct photo of that person. The colors acted as clues and helped him narrow down his choices. Then, he had to roll up the photo, put it in the egg, and close it. This step was actually a great little fine motor skills exercise. Since he had to read the words 'aunt,' 'uncle,' and 'cousin' several times, which are words I don't think he has encountered much in school, I am hoping that he would now be able to recognize them if he saw them again in print.
6yo son reading each egg
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Putting the photo into the egg
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I did things differently with my three year old daughter. I put all of the photos into their respective egg. Then, I had her chose eggs one-by-one. I asked her "What color is this egg?" Then, after she told me, she opened the egg (fine motor skills!). I then asked her, "Do you know who that is?" If she got it right, we did high-fives and moved on, but if not, I let her guess a few times before I told her the person's name. For aunts and uncles, I also used terms like, "Daddy's sister," and for great-grandparents, I said "Grandpa S.'s mom."
You can't expect preschoolers to know the names of everyone in their extended family, even if you do see a lot of them (and we live fairly far from most of our family members, so we don't see them that often.) And if you do this 'game' enough, it WILL help them learn names and faces faster than they would otherwise. Gradually, with the younger children, you can even start to read and show them the names and words on each egg - if you repeat it enough, they may start to recognize those words!
You can't expect preschoolers to know the names of everyone in their extended family, even if you do see a lot of them (and we live fairly far from most of our family members, so we don't see them that often.) And if you do this 'game' enough, it WILL help them learn names and faces faster than they would otherwise. Gradually, with the younger children, you can even start to read and show them the names and words on each egg - if you repeat it enough, they may start to recognize those words!
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With older kids, you could for further back in past generations, and include photos of ancestors who passed away before they were born, plus you could get into more complex family relationships, such as grand-aunts and uncles and second cousins.
This activity was inspired by two separate blog posts I found on the web. The first is very basic and is great for toddlers. The second involved a somewhat 'competitive' egg hunt with no candy/prizes in the eggs, which I didn't see ending well with my own kids. So, I combined elements of each for the activities I created above for my kids.
Family Tree Color Sorter by Nicole Kavanaugh at The Kavanaugh Report
Easter Egg Family Tree Game by Michelina at Preserving Heritage
©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder.
This activity was inspired by two separate blog posts I found on the web. The first is very basic and is great for toddlers. The second involved a somewhat 'competitive' egg hunt with no candy/prizes in the eggs, which I didn't see ending well with my own kids. So, I combined elements of each for the activities I created above for my kids.
Family Tree Color Sorter by Nicole Kavanaugh at The Kavanaugh Report
Easter Egg Family Tree Game by Michelina at Preserving Heritage
©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder.
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