Timelines for kids - A comprehensive overview of timelines for k-6 students

Creating a Timeline What did you do yesterday? When you were thinking about the events of yesterday, most likely you start with waking up and then going to bed and everything in between. You did things in order. The events in history can also be written down in order, from the beginning of time until today. One of the best ways to show events in time is by using a timeline. A timeline is a graph showing the passage of time on a straight line. It can be horizontal or vertical. Here is an example of a timeline showing some events in the United States. In 1945, World War II ends. 1955, the first McDonald's opens up. In 1965, Pop Tarts are created. In 1975, the Vietnam War ends. In 1995, the San Francisco 49ers win the Super Bowl. In 2005, the sixth Harry Potter book came out. And in 2015, the movie Jurassic World opened up. Here are some things to remember when making a timeline. A timeline can be created using years, months, days, or even hours as the time periods. They can contain images, pictures, or other drawings related to the events. A timeline can start and end at any time, or show one year, one month, or one day in history. Timelines can be about a person's life, events in history, inventions, or just about anything that shows information during the passage of time. The spaces between time periods should match the time. For example, notice this timeline. It shows every 10 years, except there is a larger gap or interval between 1975 and 1995 because 20 years have passed. Timelines can be fun, and they're easy to create. In this example, we are going to create a vertical timeline. Step one, what events will the timeline show? In this example, we're going to use the life of a child. Step two, what time periods will be used? We're going to use years. Step three, what are the intervals? In this example, they will be changing depending on the year. Step four, will there be images or drawings? Yes, there will be some images. Step five, create the timeline. Decide whether it will be vertical or horizontal. In this example, we're going to do a vertical timeline. The timeline shows the events in the child's life from when they were born until the present time, starting third grade at a new school. Of course, many other events could be added to the timeline, such as the first tooth, beginning kindergarten, or other important events in the child's life. Timelines show the order of events in a person's life or history. They give some information about an event and are easy to follow along. Creating a timeline is as easy as drawing a straight line with a ruler. What was the most important event in your life that can be on a timeline? Why was it important?