Mr and Mrs Social Studies

A Teaching Blog

  • Mr and Mrs Social Studies
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Blog
  • Videos
  • Teaching Materials
historical-timelines

Using Historical Timelines in Your Classroom

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-historical-timeline

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.

american-history-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.

us-history-posters

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!

Tweet
Share
Pin123
Share
123 Shares
«
»
WELCOME!
We are Jake and Sarah, two Social Studies teachers and curriculum designers who are passionate about creative history lessons, student engagement, and decluttered classrooms. We are so glad you’re here!

Let’s keep in touch

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube

Become an Insider

Subscribe to our newsletter to get teaching tips, exclusive deals, and freebies, delivered right to your inbox!

Find it Fast

Categories

Popular Posts

16 Ancient Rome Activities for Middle School
8 Classroom Decor Themes for Middle School
13 Ancient China Activities for Middle School
22 Ancient Greece Activities for Middle School
10 Classroom Decor Ideas for Social Studies
Teaching with GRAPES in Ancient Civilizations

Grab our button

Grab our button

Latest on Facebook

Latest on Instagram

Our new event-focused comparative timeline is now Our new event-focused comparative timeline is now available for Ancient Civilizations! It comes with a banner size that can stretch around your classroom and a bulletin board size where all 100 events can be displayed at their appropriate place on the timeline!⁣
⁣
The color version is color-coded to match our word wall cards, and there is also a black-and-white version included! Of course, each version is 100% editable too!⁣
⁣
Take a closer look at the link in our bio!⁣
⁣
P.S. A U.S. history version will be uploaded tomorrow!
We have recently made some exciting updates to our We have recently made some exciting updates to our first day activities for Ancient Civilizations, U.S. History, and World Geography! There is now an editable version of the file included so you can change out any of the prompts or edit the directions. We also added a bonus mystery sorting challenge that students can do after they complete the icebreaker or if there is some extra time at the end of class. If you already have any of these, make sure you download the updated version!⁣
⁣
This first day activity is a great combination of a traditional ice breaker and an introduction to your social studies course content, so it was always our favorite way to start the year! One of my favorite parts about it was having a chance to have that first one-on-one conversation with each student. ⁣
⁣
You can check out these resources at the link in our bio!
Have you purchased your copy of the Social Studies Have you purchased your copy of the Social Studies Super Bundles yet? You only have one day left to get a massive discount on these epic collections of social studies resources! ⁣⁣⁣⁣
⁣⁣
We have worked together with some of our favorite fellow teachers and curriculum designers to offer value-packed secondary bundles for Ancient Civilizations/World History, US History, and Government/Civics! There is even an upper elementary bundle as well! You can buy any of the individual bundles for $20 or buy multiple bundles to save even more!⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Grab the bundle(s) of your choice by clicking on the link in our bio or copying and pasting this link: https://notanotherhistoryteacher.com/social-studies-bundle-sale/ref/19/?campaign=BundleSale2022⁣
⁣⁣
Which bundle(s) will you be getting?
⭐Social Studies Bundle Giveaway! We have teamed ⭐Social Studies Bundle Giveaway! We have teamed up with an amazing group of teacher authors to bring you a Social Studies Bundle Giveaway! We have TWO amazing bundles for you to choose from... an Elementary (3rd-5th gr) or Secondary (6th-12th) bundle. The resources in these bundles are valued at over $500 each! Just follow these steps⬇⁣
.⁣
Here’s how to enter to win:⁣
.⁣
⭐START by ❤LIKING this photo! Next, follow these easy steps:⁣
.⁣
⭐ FOLLOW the directions within the post on the @socialstudiesbundlesale page⁣
.⁣
⭐ FOLLOW everyone that @socialstudiesbundlesale is following⁣
.⁣
⭐ Comment below with what grade you teach and your favorite unit to teach!⁣
.⁣
⭐BONUS entries for tagging friends AND sharing the giveaway in your stories-Tag @socialstudiesbundlesale in your post!⁣
⁣
This giveaway will end on Sat Aug 6th at 7PM EST-Winner will be announced just after giveaway closes!⁣
.⁣
This is in no way sponsored, endorsed, associated, or administered by Instagram.⁣
.⁣
We will NOT ask for credit card information! We will announce the winner publicly and then contact them personally!
Hello hello! It's been a long time since our last Hello hello! It's been a long time since our last post, but we are excited to be back and look forward to sharing more teaching ideas this year! It is also exciting to see many new faces here! Welcome! ⁣
⁣
Today we figured it was fitting to share some of our new printable welcome banners. We have specific sets for Ancient Civilizations, U.S. History, Geography, and many other designs that are linked in our bio. ⁣
⁣
I didn't even realize printable welcome banners were a thing early in my teaching career...I remember buying stencil letters, some thick permanent markers, and coloring in the letters I wanted by hand. It was tedious and not the best use of my time. This sounds like a first year of teaching mistake, but this was year 4 😂⁣
⁣
Don't make the same mistakes that I did! These are so much faster, and you can edit them to spell anything you want!
Happy New Year! We hope you have had an excellent Happy New Year! We hope you have had an excellent winter break so far and that your 2022 is off to a good start!⁣
⁣
We also want to thank you for all of your support of us at Mr and Mrs Social Studies! Creating resources for you to use in your classrooms is such a privilege. We love getting to nerd out and research different historical topics and eras, while also creating new templates and activities! ⁣
⁣
We are pleased to report that we added 133 new resources to our store in 2021 and were able to donate over $10,000 to educational and social justice organizations and non-profits, as part of our initiative where we donate 10% of our TPT profits every month.⁣
⁣
We have a lot of new resources and helpful content planned for this year, so stay tuned! Thank you again!
While the concept of a morning routine or evening While the concept of a morning routine or evening routine might already be something you are doing, you may be able to establish some time-saving routines during your school day! ⁣
⁣
For example, you might set a routine for your plan period, such as replying to emails, making copies, checking your teacher mailbox, followed up by prepping your agenda for the next day. Alternatively, you might schedule routines that only happen on certain days of the week. For instance, maybe Tuesday and Thursday could be grading days, and you don’t even think to check or update grades on the other days of the week. ⁣
⁣
While a routine is still new, it might be helpful to put a little reminder about it on a post-it note or set a reminder on your device until it becomes habitual!
After the time change, it’s always a bummer how After the time change, it’s always a bummer how quickly it gets dark outside. The colder weather certainly does not help either. However, we have found that putting up some fairy lights in a central part of the home makes a huge difference in our mood. It makes our home feel much more warm and almost magical, and we’ll keep the lights on from dusk until we go to bed. If you are struggling with this too, we highly recommend trying it!
Did you know that we have curriculum videos with d Did you know that we have curriculum videos with details about how to teach each of the major Ancient Civilizations units? These videos walk through our favorite resources to use, how we organize our unit plans, and other general tips or reminders to make your planning easier!⁣
⁣
Head to the link in our bio or copy and paste this URL to see the whole playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLntQhUSjy5ahZExFVLpJxGmBW24fK6Xx9
Follow on Instagram

Latest on Pinterest

Copyright © 2025 · BRANDING + WEBSITE DESIGN BY LAUGH EAT LEARN