Allemandi
Social Studies
Fall, 2009
HONORING OUR ANCESTORS
What is an ancestor? An ancestor is someone from whom you are either directly
descended from or closely related to. A parent, grandparent, or greatgrandparent is an ancestor. A great-aunt or uncle, or a cousin from an earlier
generation, is also considered an ancestor for this project. Ancestors are not
people from you own generation (brothers or sisters, for example.)
You will create a presentation honoring a relative, living or dead, who has had an
impact on your life and on your family. You will use interviews of family members,
investigation of letters and photographs, and a brief study of the time period
and location in which this ancestor lived. For example, if you have chosen an
ancestor who lived in China during the 1960’s, I expect you to be able to know
something about life in China during that time period. You do not need to have
complete information about your ancestor. Sometimes, you will have more
questions than answers due to lack of records. However, I expect you to make a
good-faith effort to find out as much as possible about your ancestor.
You will create a poster about your ancestor. You may either purchase the
poster, or I can give you butcher paper. On the poster, you will provide
information about your ancestor via sentences describing and discussing your
ancestor and the times s/he lived in, using also bullet point notes, pictures, maps,
charts, drawings, title headings. You MUST INCLUDE a TIMELINE and a
WORLD MAP, with your ancestor’s birth country shaded in. Be creative! Be sure
you have your ancestor’s name prominently displayed at the top of your poster!
If you have something that belonged to your ancestor, it would be wonderful if
you could bring it in and show the class (as long as it’s not too expensive or
delicate.)
You will present your poster to the whole class on your assigned due date.
YOUR DUE DATE: _____________________________
Allemandi
Social Studies
Fall, 2009
Possible Questions to ask:
Who is this person? Full Name? Nickname?
When and where was s/he born?
Where did they spend most of their life? Where do they live now?
Did they always live in one place or did they move around often?
When did s/he come to the USA, (if s/he did) and why? If they don’t live in the USA, have
they ever been here on a visit?
Have you met this person?
When? What do you remember about them?
Why did you choose this person?
Why is this person special to you or your family?
What did you learn from studying this person’s life?
List some events in your ancestor’s life, both things s/he did and events in the world at large.
Make notes for you timeline: