2nd Grade
Family History & Personal Timeline Project
We are about to embark on our first project of the year, the Family History & Personal Timeline Project! Students will be learning about life long ago and in turn will do a little research into their own family history.
Attached to this letter you will find several assignments that your child will need to complete at home with your help and guidance. These include, A Family Tree, Ancestor/Relative Interview, Map of Ancestors, A Family Artifact, and the Personal Timeline. Please complete each assignment by the due date. Your child will conclude the unit by creating a poster display in class with all of the assignments. In other words, please do not create a poster with all of the assignments at home, simply help your child gather the necessary information so they can complete the final project in class. We will conclude the unit with student presentations on their finished projects.
*If possible, can you please get 2 poster boards for your child and send them to school by Tuesday, September 22, 2015with your child’s name on them. If that is not possible, then please let me know so we can find some posters for your child. (Color doesn’t matter—and the smaller ’22 x 28’ size—not the large 3-sided boards please)
Listed below are the assignment due dates.
Assignment due dates:
- Family Tree: Wednesday September 16, 2015–We are doing a project in class with this information on Wednesday, September 16th, so please have this done and sent to school one this due date
- Personal Timeline (If you have pictures of the events, please feel free to send them with your child): Tuesday, September 22,2015--We are doing a project in class with this information on Tuesday, September 22th, so please have this done and sent to school one this due date
- Map of Ancestors: Friday, October 2, 2015
- Ancestor/Relative Interview:Tuesday, October 6,2015
- A Family Artifact: Thursday, October 8, 2015
*Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions that you may have about the project.*
Ancestor/Relative Interview
Name of person interviewed: ______
Relationship to you: ______
Where did our ancestors live before coming to California or The United States?
When did they move here?
Why did they move here?
Please tell me a story or interesting facts about the move.
Parent Signature:______Student Signature ______
Family Artifact
Please help your child choose an artifact from your family. It can be a photograph, document, or a tangible artifact like a stuffed animal as long as it shows some part of your family history. It can be any item that has been in the family for a long time, the more decades the better. Now, if this item is very precious and valuable, please just take a photo of it rather than bringing in the actual piece. If you insist on bringing the actual item, I will do my best to keep it safe.
Along with the artifact, your child must write a detailed description of the item that is at least four excellent sentences long. In this description they should name the item, tell us how old it is, who it belonged to, what makes it so special, and any other important information they may want to share. Each child will present their artifact to the class so make sure your child is confident in the information.
I brought ______
This is what it tells about my family history:
Parent Signature:______Student Signature ______
Personal Timeline
Ask your parents to help you remember the dates of ten important events in your life
to write on your own timeline. Include the date of your birth.
Event Date
1.______
2.______
3.______
4.______
5.______
6.______
7.______
8.______
9.______
10.______
Parent Signature:______Student Signature ______
Timeline Example:
2004 Born
2005 Crawled
2006 Walked
2007 First time to ride a bike
2008 Began preschool
2009 Began kindergarten
2010 Vacation to Florida
2011 Aunt Molly came to visit
2012 Baby sister was born
Here are some more examples:
- “First” time events (steps, tooth, etc)
- Special birthday party
- Sport/dance performances
- Memorable vacations/family events
- New home/school/family member/pet
- Awards/goals/special acknowledgements
If you have photographs to represent an event on the timeline, please send it with your student to class. If not, that is okay because we will spend time drawing pictures to represent each event in class to post on the final timeline project.