Illustrated as it must be by fascinating charts and diagrams, the creation of earth as we now know it unfolds before the child’s imagination.
The Clock of Eras
This chart represents the lifespan of planet Earth in terms of “cosmic hours,” so children have another way to grasp the concept of the relative amounts of time it took for Earth to form and for different types of life to develop.
The Long Black Strip
This black strip represents the age of Earth, from its very beginning. A 1cm strip of white represents the whole time that humans have been on Earth. This impressionistic lesson is designed to give children perspective on how recently, in Earth’s timeline, humans entered the scene.
Clock of Eras
Long Black Strip
Timeline of Humans
The Timeline of Humans
This timeline shows the story of the human journey from the end of the Pliocene (the emergence of our hominid ancestors) to the beginning of the Holocene, ending at the Bronze Age. Key events, such as the uses of fire and development of hand tools, are correlated with physiological development, such as the emergence of H. sapiens sapiens and the disappearance of H. neanderthalensis.
The Story of Language
This timeline introduces students to the development of communication over time and across civilizations. It covers the origin of human language: sounds, gestures, and pictograms of early humans, through the cuneiform of the Sumerians, the hieroglyphs of the Egyptians, and the first official alphabet of the Phoenicians. It explores derivatives of the first alphabet, which were created by the Greeks and Romans, and some additional ancient forms of writing, such as Chinese and Hebrew.
The History of Numbers
This timeline introduces students to various forms and methods of counting and record-keeping, starting with the use of concrete materials, to the emergence of abstract writing systems, and eventually, more advanced number systems.
BC/BCE Timeline
The timeline begins from Prehistory and concludes to the Modern time period which is set off with a red background to represent the current time frame.
Timeline of Civilizations
The timeline of Ancient Civilizations spans the period from 5000 BC to 300 AD. The timeline displays the empires that existed at that time as well as the factors that influenced their rise and decline.
Some students become inspired to make their own timelines. In doing so, they practice the precision of measurement. They also practice sorting and classification while deciding which information is most useful to include on a timeline. Students may notice examples of cause and effect and patterns that occur over time. They make connections between the content areas of the classroom, thus building a more integrated understanding of their world.
