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Cascading Timelines

Submitted by admin on Sat, 10/30/2010 - 13:21
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Summary: 

Creating these timelines takes a bit of time up front, but its an investment you can use all year long. Timelines are a wonderful place to hang bits of knowledge, and see the relationships between different subject areas.

Materials needed: paper, ruler, pencil, and books or Wikipedia. Printable Template here

We used butcher paper and a good chunk of wall space. We made 5 timelines, on different scales. The thing to do is choose a convenient, easy to measure timescale that approximately fits the thing you want to display.

For a 120 cm stretch of butcher paper, here are some scales you might want to use:

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1st Grade
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High School

The Editing of the Declaration of Independence

Submitted by admin on Sun, 07/04/2010 - 01:52
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Summary: 

Perfect for perfectionists - take a look at Jefferson's rough draft, with many crossouts and changes. Kids may also be interested to learn that Thomas Jefferson was pretty upset about how the Continental Congress further edited his original document.

Here's a few possible assignments that can get kids thinking more deeply about Independence Day:

1) Read the final Declaration together, answering questions, and then ask the student to write it in their own words, as if they were telling a friend what the Declaration is about.

2) What was Jefferson thinking as he wrote the first draft? Does anything strike you about his edits? What was he trying to achieve? (Some of the edits were likely made directly by Benjamin Franklin and possibly John Adams.)

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3rd Grade
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