Historical Timelines
One of the biggest challenges when teaching social studies is that it can be hard for students to grasp how long different time period are and how they connect to each other. We’ve found one of the easiest ways to overcome this is using historical timelines! In this post, we’ll be covering how teaching with timelines can be helpful, how to set them up, and some resources we’ve designed to make teaching with them easier!
Teaching with Timelines
Some textbooks provide timelines, but most of the time, they don’t connect everything together. Rather, they only focus on specific time periods and stop there. Because of this, they don’t show when certain civilizations or events might overlap, but rather one after the other. We know history is actually pretty messy and not as neatly organized.
If we think about it from an ancient civilizations standpoint, it can be difficult to compare and contrast different civilizations if there isn’t a clear visual. When it comes to US historical events, so many of them overlap that it can be hard for students to connect them without physically seeing when they occurred. Teaching with visual timelines that connect and show overlap can help give better context to your students and ease these issues!
Classroom Setup
When it comes to setting up a historical timeline in your classroom, it really depends on the topic you are teaching. If you’re creating your own resource from scratch, you want to make sure it’s very visual for your students. With that, we recommend color-coding to help separate each time period or event as they overlap. You can add other visuals as well, such as historical images to help students make better connections. Then simply display them in a part of your classroom that’s easy for students to see.
For more info and instructions on how to set up a timeline in your classroom, you can watch the corresponding video here.
Down below we’ve put a few resources together that may make setting up a timeline in your classroom easier. They cover topics such as Ancient Civilizations as well as both parts of US History! You can click on each image to see the related products!
Ancient Civilization Timeline
This Ancient Civilization timeline covers everything from Prehistory to the Middle Ages, showing approximations of where each civilization began and ended. The timeline also has color-coded posters that include historical images to help students compare the context of each civilization. The timeline itself spans from before 5500 BCE to just past 2000 CE, which can help students grasp where they currently fit in history!
American History Timelines
When teaching American History, it is often split into early (for 7th grade) and modern (for 8th grade) timeframes. With that in mind, we’ve made two separate timelines that cover each part with corresponding posters.
Early American Historical Timeline
Our Early American history timeline covers the First Americans through the Civil War, showing where each event began and ended as well as where they overlapped. Just as with the Ancient Civilizations timeline, each poster is color-coded to the specific event and gives visual context. The timeline itself is separated into 25-year blocks, spanning from 1375CE to 1900CE.
Modern American Historical Timeline
Our Modern American timeline covers events from 1865 CE to the present, ranging from Reconstruction through the Modern Era. It does overlap our Early American timeline as it starts in 1840CE. This allows students to connect the timeframe of events that transferred over from early to modern American history. This timeframe is shorter than the Early American resource, having the timeline separated into smaller, 10-year blocks.
Teaching Social Studies
Whether you teach Ancient Civilizations, US History, or any other history class, constructing a historical timeline in your classroom is a great way to help your students connect everything. There are so many ways to set them up and they’re a great addition to your teaching!
If you liked this post on using historical timelines in your classroom, you may also enjoy this blog post covering 10 different classroom decor ideas for social studies teachers!
Are you looking for some new teaching ideas to engage your students in your social studies class? If so, you’ll love our FREE guide: 5 Creative Projects to Ignite Student Engagement in Your Social Studies Class. These activities have both printable and digital options and can work for any social studies subject!
