Printable Time Line (40,000 BC to 2000 AD)

This printable timeline (dates 40,000 BC to 2000 AD) can be used for any purpose–sequencing pictures and information about the great civilizations, historical events or personages, world art, or any other development. I used it to show the history of writing from proto-writing (cave art) all the way up to personal computers. The children can lay the date cards out end-to-end. All cards together stretch a little over 30.’ Or you can lay them out in consecutive rows. After laying the cards out end-to-end, the children can sort any pictures or information you have under the appropriate dates. I’ve included both BC/BCE and AD/CE abbreviations, because children will encounter both notations in contemporary texts.

Included are 42 individual date cards that span the dates 40,000 BC to 2000 AD.

• Prehistory dates are on blue cards in ten thousand-year increments (blue for tens of thousands).
• Ancient history dates are on green cards in 1,000-year increments (green for thousands).
• Starting at 1,000 BC/BCE, dates are on red cards in 100-year increments (red for hundreds).
• An optional image of Jesus is provided to place between BC and AD dates to show that the Gregorian calendar (internationally accepted calendar) is based on the traditionally reckoned year of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
• There is no year zero in this scheme, so the year AD 1 immediately follows the year 1 BC.
• The cards’ dates overlap as such: 100-200 AD, 200-300 AD and so on, because it’s much easier for the children to place the cards end-to-end by matching up 200 to 200.

If you would like to use the timeline with the history of writing, see my History of Writing 3-Part Cards.

For more information, see The History of Writing Great Lesson. This ebook includes a story to read to the children and suggests more pictures that could be collected and placed along the timeline.

You may also be interested in The History of the English Language, which also includes a story for the children and suggests which pictures could be collected and placed along the timeline.

Both stories are excerpted from The Complete Montessori Language Arts Teacher's Manual.

Print on card stock, laminate, and use a paper cutter to separate the individual date/heading cards.


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