Forms for Creating Timelines
Choose the format(s) that you like best and print on heavy paper. If you wish to color code your timeline, print on heavy colored paper. Although the files are shown as horizontal, rotate them to suit your timeline book.
- Write the dates on the printed timeline forms as you use them.
- Place them in a 3-ring notebook, or after the book is completed have them comb-bound.
- Seek or draw figures from history to use on the forms. (:::Some purchase timeline figures, some cut them from old books, some find figures on the internet, some draw figures, some use captions without figures.:::)
- Write captions on images or on plain paper. If timelines are white, write captions directly on forms. If printed on dark colored paper, write captions with gel pens. Purchased resource: History Through the Ages - Timeline Figures
- Use rubber cement to glue figures to forms. (Rubber cement preferred because of its neatness, disliked because of its smell. Read warning label on rubber cement.) OR print figures on full-sized sticky paper. Avery makes that product.
- Use the timeline resources list below to find concurrent events or research them at your library. Form TL2 is especially good for recording concurrent events. Suggested headings for concurrent events: Politics (list wars, leaders, political policies), Literature/Arts (list plays, literature, arts (paintings, sculptures, etc), architecture, and music including advances in said topics), Religion, Philosophy, Education, Daily Life (list events regarding religious rulers, births and deaths, etc, things of daily life, - plagues, things that improved life or worsened it, etc), Science, Technology (list advances in all sciences, including scientists (birth and deaths) inventions, scientific books, etc.) Recommended Reference Book: The Timetables of History
Forms for Making 3-Ring Notebook Timelines
The outline below is a general suggestion on how you could date your timeline templates. Remember that you do not have to date them until you are about to use them.
Numbering the templates:
- 5000 BC-1000BC ---1000 years per template
- 1000BC- 100BC ---100 years per template
- 100BC-1000AD ---50 years per template
- 1000-1800 --- 20 years per template
- 1800-present --- 10 years per template