Classroom Timeline Freebie

My students always have a difficult time understanding the concept of time. Trying to visually explain days, months and years when reading informational text is an abstract concepts for many little ones. I wanted to help my students understand, visualize and internalize the idea of how long a school year is actually. Just telling them it is 10 months or 180 days means little to most of them.

So, I thought I would try something new this school year... create a classroom timeline! Before the kids entered class I posted the timeline on our wall.

I used painters tape to create the line. It doesn't damage the paint on the wall and I could move it until I got my line as straight as possible. Then I created a timeline header and colorful monthly tags and spaced them apart evenly. 

I explained to my students that we would take the entire school year to fill our timeline with pictures and captions of activities we do throughout the year. Last week, we picked two of our most favorite activities since school started and wrote captions for the pictures to go with them. The kids loved making their All About Me glyphs and getting their picture taken with their First Day in Second Grade frame. 

I printed these pictures and posted them above August on our timeline. Then we wrote a caption together to put below it. Writing the captions also helps students understand the purpose of a caption in the informational text we read during the week. They get excited when they find them and read what the picture is about.

I hope our class timeline will help the kids understand and apply the concept of time over one year, as well as help my students remember all the amazing things they learn over the school year. If you would like to create your own classroom time line click HERE to grab my template for FREE. Have a great long weekend!