Our stake has been focused on teaching the primary children ages 8-11 how to do family history, and our youth consultants are taking charge of teaching them. So I created a lesson plan for our youth family history consultants to use as they teach at the children’s homes.
The lesson invites the children to become explorers and discover their family’s past. Four tools from an “explorer’s backpack” are used to explain family history concepts. The compass teaches the children to get started in the right direction by creating an account on FamilySearch.org. The map is used to teach children about mapping family relationships on a family tree chart. The camera teaches about capturing and preserving important images. The binoculars teach about looking and searching for clues in historical records. The first page of the lesson introduces these tools and concepts in a matching game. The other lesson pages focus on each tool and what you can do with it.
I laminated my lesson pages to use over and over.
The lesson plan focuses on four goals:
- Sign in with their own account on FamilySearch (Lesson 1)
- View the fan/pedigree chart on FamilySearch (Lesson 2)
- Upload a story and a photo on FamilySearch (Lesson 3)
- Find a name to take to the temple when they graduate from Primary (Lesson 4)
Each goal has it’s own lesson page. When the child completes the “to do” items on the page, they get to put a stamp in their passport.
Additional pages can be added to the passport for taking notes!
The passport stamp page has circles to show the children where to cut and paste their stamp as they complete each the lesson.
Along with the lesson pages, I made a more detailed lesson plan outline with ideas for teaching and discussion questions:
The best way to teach this lesson plan is one-on-one. It can be adapted for groups as well, especially if you have several helpers to walk around and help with the “to-do” items. It would also work for family home evening!
Here are the printables for download:
Family Home Evening Lesson – Family Tree Explorers with short instructions
Lesson Pages – Family Tree Explorers – laminate or put in page protectors.
Lesson Outline for Youth Consultants – Family Tree Explorers – lesson plan including objectives, preparation, step by step instructions for teaching, and discussion questions. Written for a family history consultant as the teacher, but parents can use it too.
Family Tree Explorers short instructions – Family Tree Explorers short instructions – one page of instructions to help anyone get started teaching these lessons.
Family Tree explorers passport – template for creating a passport book for the children to mark their progress. You can add note pages for the children to take notes on what they find.
Family Tree Explorers cover page – cover page for lesson plans. I stapled this onto a manila file folder.
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Thanks for the note!