Family Tree

This is one of those activities that doesn't need much preparation. Once you've made it, it's done. If you find yourself scrambling madly Saturday night trying to think of something to do for Singing Time, this works fabulously.

I got this from Super Singing Activities by Ross and Guymon-King. You can buy the book or the cd. I got the cd, it makes it so much easier to print out on my printer. I have a colored laser printer, so my printouts are awesome quality and the ink lasts much longer than an inkjet.

Once you've printed it out, assemble and glue the tree onto poster board with spray adhesive. Adhere the little cards onto some cardstock. Cut everything out. Laminate your pieces as well as your tree. I did the little pieces with my own laminator, and got the tree done at a printing shop for about $2 or $3. Inexpensive.


Cut out the laminated pieces. Put the little pieces in a ziplock bag. Punch a hole at the top of the bag and at the top of the tree. Keep these together with 1.5" Loose Leaf Rings.


Decide what songs you're going to sing. Write the song names with the page numbers on the back of each little piece with non-permanent marker. I use Staedtler non-permanent marker. It's not dry erase, it's water soluable. That means if you rub it it won't get rubbed off, but you can remove it cleanly with water, leaving no residue. Love love love it. This way I can reuse pieces over and over again. And we all know how I love to reuse stuff.


Tape the pieces onto the tree. Pick a kid to come up and choose a family member. Sing the song on the back. If you want, you can explain what the musical terms are for each member, and sing like the family member. Ex, for Ruth Staccato, you can sing staccato (short and choppy).

Eventually I'll buy a big roll of velcro so that I can use velcro on the backs and not have to rely on tape all the time, but for now masking tape works fine.

You can tape this to the whiteboard/chalkboard in the room, or you can do what I do, which is tape it to a solid foam board. This way you can rest it on the whiteboard ledge for the big kids, or set it on the ground so that the little kids can reach it.