When my kids asked as part of a study of Malcom X if MX and MLK had slaveowners, I decided to start making a timeline.

We started with 2010 and then I asked them how many years we needed to put on to show all of the North American history that involves their African ancestors. (partern talk, then whip around for whole group share.) They had guesses ranging from 10 to 1,000 years and I gave the correct answer, right in the middle of their guesses, 450 years (enslaved Africans were first brought to Florida in 1560.)

I asked if they thought we could put 450 years on the one poster that we had up on the wall (thumbs up or thumbs down.) They were split in half. "Sure we could," I said, "we just need to make the years really small, like this," and I started to draw in teeny, tiny years. "You guys have seen timelines before, so you know that we need to put some dats and some writing about what happened on those dates. Is that all going to fit here?" "No," they responded.

Then I directed them to look at the lines on the paper. "Can we use one line equals one year? Let's see....nope didn't work. Can we use one line equals two years...nope doesn't work."

Eventually we ended up making three lines equal a decade. I showed the kids how to count the three lines and then write down the next decade. Then they filled it in on their own, as you can see from the variety of font size =)

We put up important historical events starting with their birthyear. I decided to put up only events that they're familiar with, but that they don't know the date or chronology of.

First they brought up the "I Have a Dream Speech" and then Michael Jackson's brithday. They were excited to see the proximity of the two. I think that affective dimension helps them understand time and historical depth.

We've gone on adding 2-3 dates each day. Before asking them what they want to add I review the chronology with them through quick questions, i.e. When did the Civil War end? How many years older than MJ is Ruby Bridges?, etc.

Next, I plan to refer my kids to this chart to make a new KWL chart (What do we think we Know? What do we Want to know? What did we Learn?)

Ancticipating that they'll have questions about Frederick Douglas (they put his birth on the timeline, but don't seem to know much about him) and the origins of slavery, I went to the library and got some biographical and historical texts.

If you have any resources or ideas please share them!