Teaching Children to Make Timelines
Time lines are interesting ways to teach children about history or literature. They combine the academic subject with a bit of art, math, writing, problem solving and organizational skill, making this a very efficient learning activity. On the other hand, it is much more challenging than it might seem if it is to be done well, so a fair amount of time must be budgeted for it.
Before beginning this activity, have your child look at other time lines. She needs to notice how the maker of the line chose the events to list. No one can list everything. Which types of events are included and why? Why were other events left out?
Suppose your child is going to outline the events that occur in the book Anne of Green Gables. This book covers Anne’s life from ages eleven to sixteen, so the time line will need to reflect a six year span. This does not mean your child need only divide the time line into only six equal sections. She will soon notice that all years were not equally eventful for Anne.
Ask your child to go through the book again, skimming rather than reading, and write down each important event in the book. She should note the page on which it occurred, in case she needs to return to it, and the age Anne was when it occurred. Have her draw a line after the last event that occurred at each age, so that the events that happened when she was eleven are in one section, the events when she was twelve in another and so on. She will soon realize for herself that the sections are not equal. To solve this problem, she will need to count the total number of items on her list. This is the number that has to be evenly divided on her paper, not the ages. (Try to let her discover this by herself, or only with clues.)
The next step is to look at all the events she has listed. Are they all important enough to list? Often things that were written down seem less important when looked at in terms of the entire book. Have her edit her list until she is sure she has the most important events.
You will probably want to use a long roll of butcher paper for this project. Because it takes a great deal of experimentation, type each item on the list in a larger font and print it out. Cut each item into separate pieces of paper. Also cut out the major headings of the time line. Lay them all out on the butcher paper and let your child move them around. She will need to do some math to complete this project. She should measure the piece of paper she wants to use. (You may not want to cut it until you are sure she has the right size.) She will then have to divide to figure out how far apart to make each item. How much space she needs depends on how she wants to design the time line. Many children enjoy drawing pictures to decorate the time line.
When the time line is complete, glue everything down and display the finished project in the house. Ask her to evaluate her project and decide what she might do differently next time. The more often a child tackles this task, the easier it will be to do.