Heritage Tree Leaf
Here's What To Do
Talk about your family:
- People in your family
- Traditions in your family
- Language(s) your family speaks
- Culture(s) your family belongs to
- Things your family loves to do together
Explain that you're going to make a tree leaf that represents your family's culture. Help your child gather pictures of people, places, and things you'd like to put on your leaf. Or, help your child draw pictures instead.
Using the leaf print out provided by your teacher (or printed from this page), make your own Heritage Tree Leaf. Ask your child to cut out pictures and glue them onto the leaf.
Label the pictures (children can help write labels too).
Put PEER Into Action
Pause:
- Look at your child and smile. Say something special about them.
Engage:
- Talk about any cultural, religious, or other groups your family identifies with.
- Talk about your family's culture. For example: "Can you think of some things our family likes to do together? What do we like to eat? Where do we like to go? What music do we like? What do we do for fun? What holidays do we celebrate?"
Encourage:
- "What do you think would be a good picture to show the holidays we celebrate?"
- Encourage your child to complete as much of the leaf as they can on their own, including cutting, gluing, drawing, and writing.
Reflect:
- "I love thinking about our special family. How did it make you feel to work on our Heritage Leaf?"
Not quite ready?
Ask your child to think about parts of their culture they are very familiar with- like the language you speak or holidays you celebrate. Add these to your leaf.
Ready for more?
Encourage your child to share more details they know about what's on their Heritage Tree Leaf.
As your child masters this skill...
They will be able to describe traditions of their own culture in detail.