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The Giving Tree Lesson Plans Author: Shel Silverstein
Welcome to my The Giving Tree Lesson Plans page.
On this page, you will find a set of writing resources to use for Shel Silverstein's beloved novel and a set of teaching resources for students to design their own Family Trees.
During the month of November, I read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein to my students. This book fits well with an autumn theme because of the leaves, but it also fits well with a Thanksgiving theme because students are thinking about people that they are THANKful for and how they can be more GIVING.
I hope that you will find some Giving Tree lesson plans on this page that will assist you in sharing this special book with your own students.
The Giving Tree Creative Writing Lesson Plans Set
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The Giving Tree Lesson Plans Set Creative Writing Activity
$3.50
This is a set of Giving Tree lesson plans that will help your students complete a creative writing activity based on Shel Silverstein's book.
These Giving Tree lesson plans contain the following components:
teacher directions and lesson ideas
student idea web
first draft worksheet
final draft black and white worksheet
color final draft worksheet
grading rubric
a student book cover sheet to use if you are making student books of these writing assignments
matching 5 page bulletin board display banner
leaf templates with writing lines in them
Below are the teacher directions that are included in this set.
Below is a creative writing grading rubric which has sections for both student self-assessment and teacher assessment.
If you want to make Giving Tree booklets of these creative writing assignments, I have provided a cover sheet that you could use for a book cover.
Below: Here is an example of a hallway display of these creative writing assignments using the cover sheet that is provided in these Giving Tree lesson plans.
This photograph is from Amy, a 4th Grade teacher in Texas. She reads The Giving Tree with her students in the fall.
After the fall, she took all of the leaves off of her tree display, sprayed the tree with spray snow, and added puffy snow around the base of the tree. Then, she had a wonderful tree for a winter bulletin board display too.
This creative writing assignment is a two paragraph essay about people who have been giving to you and how you can be a more giving person. Before students begin writing, I have provided an idea web worksheet for students to use to brainstorm their ideas on.
There is a first draft worksheet for students to begin their writing on. Students should proofread and edit their first drafts before they begin their final drafts.
There are black and white and color final draft writing worksheets to choose from in this Giving Tree lesson plans set of resources.
Below are the leaf templates with writing lines on them that are included in these Giving Tree lesson plans. These student response leaves will help you make a colorful autumn tree for your bulletin board display.
There are two different writing responses inside the leaf templates:
A Giving Person
I Can Be a Giving Person By
I have designed leaves with fall colors for you to use, or your students can color their own leaf using the black and white leaf templates. There are 3 different shaped leaves, each facing left and right, for a total of 12 different leaves. These 12 leaves are also provided in black and white templates so that your students can color the leaves themselves.
After your students have completed their final draft writing assignments and written their responses in their leaf templates, you will be able to create a dynamic and colorful autumn bulletin board display.
The matching 5 page bulletin board display banner that is included in these Giving Tree lesson plans is shown below.
There are two pictures below that will give you examples of how to create a tree with branches on it. You will be able to create a dynamic and colorful bulletin board display using this set of Giving Tree lesson plans.
Family Tree Student Projects and Family Tree Newspaper
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Family Tree Templates for Student Projects Includes Family Tree Newspaper Lesson Activities
$6.00
Teresa, a 4th Grade teacher from New Jersey, has kindly shared all of the examples of the finished projects that you will see on this page.
This set of Family Tree teaching resources is an ideal supplemental activity to complete with your students, so I have included it in my Giving Tree lesson plans page.
Are you looking for a unique idea and way for your students to create their own family trees? Have you used traditional one page worksheets for this activity in the past?
I have created a Family Tree lesson plans set that will have your students excited and branching out to learn about the members in their own family trees.
This set of Family Tree lesson plans includes a 5 page bulletin board banner (above). There are two branch templates and a trunk template that are assembled together to form a family tree that measures 18 inches in height and 13 inches in width.
These Family Tree lesson activities begin by giving each student a family tree worksheet to fill out at home.
Explain to your students that each family is different and this worksheet is meant to help them plan their family tree. They may have to add additional boxes if there are more children in certain sections of their family tree.
I designed this family tree project so that it is not too taxing on parents to help their child with the names required for this project. Their parents will know the names of their own brothers and sisters and their children, their mothers and fathers, and their own aunts and uncles (hopefully!), and will not have to get on the phone or e-mail family members for the names of more distant relatives.
If you want to go farther back in the family tree for your students’ projects (great grandparents, great cousins, etc), there are blank leaves so that you can add this component to your students’ projects.
Below is an example of this student worksheet.
These Family Tree projects include two branch templates and one trunk template.
When these 3 templates are assembled together, the Family Tree measures 18 inches in height and 13 inches in width.
The Family Tree is divided into two parts: the left side is for the mother’s family and the right side is for the father’s family.
There are 6 branches for the key family members: mother, maternal grandmother, maternal grandfather, father, paternal grandmother, and paternal grandfather.
The student leaf is already on the trunk and students should add their brother's and sister's leaves to the trunk section. After the three pieces of the tree have been assembled, students glue the vertical title "My Family Tree" in the middle of the tree.
There are two sizes of leaves. The larger leaves are for the key members of their family: student, brothers, sisters, mother, father, and four grandparents. The student, mother, father, and 4 grandparent leaves are already on the branch templates.
The smaller leaves are for the other members of their family tree: aunts, uncles, cousins, great uncles, and great aunts. You will need to print out extra worksheets of the leaves because some students will need more leaves for their brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, great uncles, and great aunts.
Below: This is an example of the mother’s branch.
This mother has one brother (uncle) and one sister (aunt).
The cousin leaves should be glued so that they are touching their parent’s leaf. In this example, the aunt has two children and the uncle has one child. Students write the names of each family member inside each leaf.
If you use this format in gluing the leaves on the tree, a student may have a branch that only has their mother’s leaf on it, if their mother has no brothers or sisters.
On the other hand, the father’s branch might be very full if he has 6 brothers and sisters, and they have a lot of children. This will provide a good visual image for your students of what their family tree actually looks like.
In the example below, this student has 16 leaves/family members on her mother's side of the family and 29 leaves/family member on her father's side of the family.
There is a set of Family Tree color templates for you to use for your example that you share with your students provided in this set of Family Tree lesson plans.
I have provided blank branch, trunk and leaf templates so that you can have your students design this project in any matter in which you choose.
These Family Tree Lesson Plans work well with a social studies unit. While students are studying a particular event in history, they could be discovering about their own roots and creating their own family tree.
This assignment works well as a week long homework activity for students to complete at home with the help of their parents. Parents will enjoy working on this very different type of homework assignment with their child and sharing information with their son or daughter about the members of their own family.
You will be amazed at your students' finished Family Trees and the creative ideas that they incorporate into their projects.
Below: This student has included photographs of her family members on her family tree project. I love that she has included a photograph of her dogs in the grass and that she considers her pets members of her family.
I like to include a writing component to any assignment when I get the chance. My students need all the writing practice that I can squeeze into my lessons.
While my students are finding out the names of the members of their family tree from their mothers and fathers, I have my students ask each of their parents to share something interesting about one member of their family that their son or daughter may never have heard about before.
Then, my students create a newspaper and it contains two articles, one about a member from their mother’s side of their family tree, and the other article is about a member from their father’s side of their family tree.
I have included all of the components of this Family Tree Newspaper in this set of Family Tree teaching resources.
This Family Tree Newspaper set includes an assembling directions worksheet and a grading rubric.
This Family Tree Newspaper set includes three first draft worksheets.
Students write a newspaper article about someone on their mother's side of their family tree and a second article about someone on the father's side of their family tree.
Students also have to create a comic strip for their newspaper about something interesting that happened to someone who is in their family tree. Below is an example of two of the three first draft worksheets.
For their final drafts, students have two newspaper templates that are glued together to form a Family Tree Times Newspaper that measures 13 inches in height and 10 inches in width.
There are color final draft templates of this Family Tree Times Newspaper for you to use for your example that you show to your students.
This Family Tree Times Newspaper set includes a 5 page bulletin board banner for you to use for your classroom display of these newspaper projects.
This set of Family Tree teaching resources is an ideal supplemental activity to complete with your students and include in your Giving Tree lesson plans.
These Family Tree activities could also be used as a separate lesson and do not need to be linked to The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.
I hope that you have found some Giving Tree lesson plans on this page that will assist you in sharing this special book with your own students. If you have additional ideas for Giving Tree lesson plans that you have used and would like to see resources for that I could create and include on this page, please feel free to share them with me using my Contact Me page.
Thank you for visiting my Giving Tree lesson plans page. I hope to see you back here at Unique Teaching Resources!
Sincerely, Heidi McDonald
Creator and Site Manager Unique Teaching Resources
Welcome to my The Giving Tree Lesson Plans page. 
