Personal Histories For Activity Days
Has anyone done an activity with 8-11 year olds on writing their personal history? Was it successful? What ideas did you use? I am doing this activity in a week and would love to hear what you did.
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For this age group, you want to keep it simple. This idea is a form of micro-journaling. You might try something like this; you can do this all digitally or more traditional with paper and markers:
Traditional
- Ask each child to bring copies of a few printed photos of things they like, favorite things like foods or personal belongings, things that describe who they are, family vacations, etc. (Tip: They might need to print the photos from their phone or social media accounts.)
- Glue the photo near the top of an 8.5"x11" piece of paper.
- Then, have the children write a few sentences about the photo.
- After doing a few of these, they can start to see how this is part of their personal history. Many could even be combined into a book about each of them.
- An additional step could include decorating the cover with all kinds of creative notions like glitter, watercolors, markers, stickers, etc. to make it personal. The "My Story" book could event be laminated to withstand handling and sharing better.
- Invite the children to share their favorite photo and story with the group, if they want.
Digital
- Ask each child to find a few photos that describe them or things they like or remember about their lives (similar to above). The photos need to be on a smart device connected to the internet.
- Teach the children how to upload the photos to the FamilySearch Memories app. (Download the app here.)
- Teach the children how to attach the photos to their names in Family Tree. (Make sure after they upload each photo, they change the default public view to private on the photo page at the top right to keep the photos private. See below.)
- From the photo page, click Record a Memory below the photo to narrate a memory about the photo. Alternatively, click Add Story to the right of the photo. Enter a title, and type a few sentences about the photo.
- Save the audio recording or typed story.
- Invite the children to share their favorite photo with the group, if they want.
Both of these ideas can be adapted, but hopefully, it's a place to start and a way to keep the activity fun, simple, and engaging.
Good luck with the activity! 😊
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@ctr sweetie Thank you 😊
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Much too late for the activity in the original post, but for future reference perhaps the following could be added to the excellent suggestions.
Our Family History Center is one of multiple "stops" planned for a stake Primary family activity next month. We're working with the stake Primary president to who is encouraging families to obtain FamilySearch accounts for each of the children over age 8, as appropriate to their maturity and skill level, prior to the event. Families are asked to have their children bring in a photo or object pertaining to a deceased ancestor, which we will show them how to either scan using the Lexmark printer, or photgraph using the built-in camera on each of the Dell All-in-One computers. Then the scanned photos from the printer can be uploaded directly to FamilySearch using the built-in app on the printer, or the photos taken of objects can be uploaded to the Memories pages of the appropriate ancestor(s).
We'll emphasize that unlike in the movie, "Coco," no one will ever again be forgotten, and that our own grand- and great grandchildren will still be able to know who their ancestors really were through the Memories page on FamilySearch for each person. Fourth great grandparents, for example, seem very far off to us. Yet our great grandparents will become the 4th great grandparents for our own great grandchildren. We can have a significant impact on our grand- and great grandchildren by providing them with the gift of specific memories of those distant relatives that seem so far away to us - and which generally don't even exist for most of us that far back. We don't have photos or audio recordings of our 4th great grandparents, yet we can leave those of our own great grandparents to become the treasured 4th great grandparents our descendants will come to know through FamilySearch. Children grasp this concept very nicely, and now days have the technical skills to accomplish it themselves with just a little bit of guidance.
We also hope the families come in and get enthused enough to go back home and gather up other photos or objects to upload to FamilySearch Memories as far back as they've got the photos or objects owned by or special to deceased ancestors, such as a ring, dress, etc. Those can be photographed and uploaded! A ring given to my grandfather on his 18th birthday, and which was worn throughout his service in Siberia during WWI, is visible in two photos of him during the war. It was given to me, and a photo of it with an explanatory story is now on his Memories page where my own great grandchildren can now see it on their 3rd great grandfather as he stood in his U.S. Army uniform in Siberia on Christmas Day, 1918, with that ring visible on his finger, as well as a closeup photo of it today.
-- Chris
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@Chris Bieneman Schmink , thanks for sharing about your preparation and ideas for the upcoming Primary activity day. It sounds great! Please let us know how things go after the activity is completed. Thanks!
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