Centennial Timeline

What You Need:

• History books or other research source (you can also use the Internet)
• Paper
• Pen
• Tape

What You Do:

1. Ask your child to research major national and world events of the last 100 years and make a list of the top 20-25 events that she finds the most significant, globally or personally. Have her look into all areas of history such as entertainment, economics, politics, science, education, etc.
2. Now have her make a list of current events that are in the news now or have been recently. What are some of the things that have directly impacted her or her family?
3. Lastly, ask her to envision what the world might be like 100 years from now. Have her write her predictions of what will happen in the future. Will it be a better world than it is today? Why or why not?
4. Now it's time to create a time line: using the events she wrote down in steps 1-3, have your child create a time line that begins 100 years ago and stretches 100 years into the future. You may need to tape several sheets of paper together to get it long enough!
5. Once it's complete, have your child pick a place to hang up her time line. If she likes, she can continue to add to it as new events happen.

A fun way to extend this activity is to make a time capsule: fill a box or jar with items that represent this time in history (newspaper, old cell phone, candy or food wrappers, etc.) and bury it for future generations to uncover.