How to Make a Family Tree for a School Project

A family tree is a classic school assignment for good reason: it connects a child to their own history and gets the whole family talking. If your child has one due, here is a simple, low-stress way to help them build a great one.

Keep the scope realistic

The most common mistake is trying to go too far back. For a school project, three generations is plenty:

1. The child (and their brothers and sisters)
2. Parents (and aunts and uncles, if you want)
3. Grandparents

Three generations fit neatly on a single page and are usually all a child can research and present clearly. Four is possible for older students, but it gets crowded fast.

Turn it into a conversation

The best part of this assignment is the interviews. Help your child call or sit down with relatives and ask a few simple questions:

• What is your full name, and where were you born?
• Who are your parents and brothers and sisters?
• When were you married, and to whom?

Write the answers down as you go. This is real genealogy in miniature, and it is the part children remember long after the grade is forgotten. For the grown-up version of the process, see how to make a family tree.

Choose a simple layout

A school family tree usually uses an ancestor chart — the child at the bottom, parents above, grandparents above them, widening as it goes up. It is the shape most people picture when they hear "family tree." If you want to understand the options, our guide to types of family tree charts explains them in plain language.

If the family has step-parents or half-siblings, do not paper over it — showing the real family honestly is a good lesson in itself. Our guide on blended family trees shows how.

Build it neatly, then print

Hand-drawing works for young children, but it is easy to run out of room or make a mistake that means starting over. For a tidy result, build the tree in a free tool and print it:

• Blaadline is free and runs in the browser — add each person, and the chart arranges itself
• No worrying about spacing or redrawing when you add one more relative
• Export a clean, print-ready chart to hand in or mount on poster board

A quick checklist

• Three generations, starting with the child
• Full names, plus birth dates where known
• A short interview with at least one older relative
• A neat, readable layout — printed or carefully drawn
• A photo or two, if the assignment allows

Ready to help them build it? Open Blaadline, add your child as the first person, and work up from there.