an you remember all the events that have happened in your life? So much is happening quickly that it is not easy to sort out all the events. A timeline is an excellent way to record the most important events in a chronological order, that is the order in which they occurred. A timeline can give you a clear overall picture of what happened at a glance.

ou may want to construct a timeline of the events that have occurred in your life. You can divide the timeline into years and record the most important events for each year. Timelines may also be divided into shorter or longer periods-hours, days, weeks, ten-year periods called decades, or even one-hundred year timeframes called centuries.

1. Take a long strip of paper or tape two sheets end to end. Draw four equal horizontal columns from top to bottom. Each column represents a one day period. Label the days represented at the top of the column.

2. Give your timeline a title that clearly describes its content.

3. Select the most important events of each day. Record these events in point form. Write them in order in which they happened. The Emily Carr Timeline gives this idea over the course of 74 years.

4. Add sketches to your timeline to illustrate some of the events.

5. Compare your timeline with that of a classmate. Have you identified the same events?

• Why or why not?
• Do you have events in chronological order?

6. Discuss with the class why a timeline is a useful tool for history students.