How to Make Your Own Timeline

This lesson is designed for 6 to 12-year-old children to guide them on how to make their own timeline.

What is a timeline?

The timeline illustrates important events recorded with the date or year to understand history, a story, a process, or any other event sequence. You can make a timeline to fit a variety of subjects such as lifetime, educational journey, series of events or occurrences, etc.

What is a life timeline?

A life timeline is a timeline of one’s life’s important events or achievements. It is considered a helpful tool for memoirists and memory-keepers.

Creating a life timeline helps orient a child in a time when writing or sharing stories orally. Additionally, it will allow them to delve into their past by stirring up memories.

How to create a life timeline?

Invite the child and tell them today we are going to learn how to create a timeline using joined sheets.
Ask the child to choose a topic of their interest or let’s say their life journey.
Ask them to note down important years in their life.
Now, follow the video and create equal marks using a scale.
Label the timeline with a title and the boundary years.
Invite the child to fill in each entry by writing a concise explanation about what happened, including facts such as who was involved, the impact of the event, and any numbers related to the event.
Ask the child to use increments to adjust all the text entries without merging into each other.
This is how events are chronologically added to a timeline.
After completing all the event entries, tell the child this is how a timeline is created.

Watch the video to learn the tips to divide the years into shorter equal periods and mark the events while creating a timeline.

This practical activity is a fun and innovative way to make a timeline of events. Repeat this activity by asking the child to make a timeline of their life so far.

Related resources:

For more language resources, click here.

Video Created by: Justine McNeilly