Families are Forever 2014 Primary Theme - An Addition to Opening Exercises - Family History Moment

Our primary presidency pondered how we could best incorporate the 2014 Primary Theme, "Families are Forever," into primary. One of the special things that we will do for 2014 is to add an extra assignment to Opening Exercises, which we are calling the "Family History Moment."

This is what the assignment slip that our secretary wrote says: "As part of the ward goal the Primary will be participating in family history by sharing a brief family history moment in opening exercises. Please help your child to prepare a short family history story to share. This story can be a pioneer story, a conversion story, an experience in perseverance or accomplishment, or a fun story that illustrates what life was like when that ancestor was alive."

We will share one Family History Moment a week. Each week, the child who shares the moment gets to put their name and the name of the ancestor on a leaf, which they will then get to add to this tree. We hope to encourage conversations, awareness, and appreciation in the child and their families, about this wonderful topic of family.

I hope that by the end of the year, the tree will look like this:

How I did it:

I drew the tree freehand onto a foam board the size of a standard poster board, then colored the tree in with two brown markers. I had intended to use acrylic paint but it seemed like a lot of clean-up effort for such a small amount of paint. I used a paper punch to punch out all of the leaves on color card stock, then attached one scrapbook square onto each leaf.  I also have found large leaf stickers in the past but I liked turning these leaves into stickers myself - the cheaper method. I had intended to cut out simple leaf shapes but I couldn't resist the leaf punch.

Before I drew on the board, I creased it, (and then taped it for strength).  The crease in the board ensures that it is small enough that it will fold in half and fit into the primary cupboards.