Time to Create a Timeline

Timelines are certainly an effective tool for helping elementary students understand the passage of time and place historical events in a chronological sequence, but in our classroom that isn't all that timelines communicate. The process of producing a self-designed timeline from beginning to end gives the student practical knowledge in language, math, practical life and the arts, in addition to a study of his particular topic of interest.

Traditionally, textbooks provide a linear representation of time related facts for students to memorize. Today, there are even many internet sites that give children access to beautiful pictorial displays of the passage of history. None of these prefabricated methods, though, outdo the hands-on, engaged learning process that occurs when a child sets out to make his own timeline in the Montessori elementary environment.

In our classroom, the many steps to creating a timeline provide a slew of opportunities for learning much more than just dates and events. The process goes something like this:

First the child needs to collect and organize some data:

1) He starts by researching a topic of interest.
2) Then he pulls together a list of related events and the dates they occurred.
3) Next he has to put the dates in order starting with the oldest proceeding to the most recent.
4) He takes notes, writing down a few ideas about each event.
5) If he would like, he illustrates something relevant about each event, labeling it with the appropriate date.

Mid-way through this lengthy process, the student plans out his paper requirements. To do this, he needs to complete several more steps that involve some work:

6) He considers the range of dates gathered in the research phase to decide how much space should be allocated to each period.
7) Next he decides on a scale (for example, six inches or a foot for every century -- the longer the better for the elementary child!)
8) And finally, he calculates how much paper will be needed and cuts it off the big paper roll.

At this point it is time to start working on creating the actual timeline:

9) First he uses a ruler to measures and mark off the full range of BC/BCE to AD dates along the edge of the paper according to his scale.
10) Then he is ready to place the illustrations, verbiage and date labels onto the time line paper, matching the dates with the linear progression he wrote along the base of the long strip of paper.
11) Once everything has been double checked by a friend, he glues it all down in place.
12) Lastly he adds headings and decorations to make it beautiful, and finally he presents it to the class.

So the next time your child tells you several days in a row that he has been working on a timeline, think of these twelve steps. You'll know that what he really means to say is that he has been reading, collecting information, planning, organizing, collaborating, negotiating, spelling, composing, sequencing, multiplying, dividing, counting, measuring, drawing, practicing his handwriting and improving his oral communication skills!

AOC Holiday Tasting Party

We would like to thank everyone for making our Holiday event special!
To access our web album, please click on the link below.

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AOC Tasting Party 2010

Another Halloween Approaches

October 2009

Napoleon Bonaparte, Florence Nightingale, Benjamin Franklin or Squanto to name just a few of our heroes from last year.

Who will be visiting us on October 29th?

Information about our Halloween Heroes Day can be found under "Pages" to the right of this blog post.

A Focus on World Languages and Culture

World languages and culture continue to be a focus as always in the elementary classroom. Having a solid geographical framework following years of map work, the elementary students approach language studies with a desire to know more about what makes up the vernacular... words and their sources, grammatical rules and sentence structure which create discourse, and the cultural backdrop of its land and people.

Wang Laoshi resumed work with our class two weeks ago with with her daughter on her lap, and the children excitedly approached the lesson table in small groups for a review of Chinese numbers and beginning vocabulary. All students now have been given charming Chinese names and are learning to pronounce them, recognize the characters of their names along with their captivating meanings, and in some cases even write them in Chinese calligraphy.

The elegant written form of Mandarin characters is just as lovely as the musical spoken words of Italian. We will begin to hear the alluring Italian cadences once again in our classroom starting Tuesday, October 5th as Signora Fiscella meets the elementary students to assess individual skills and proceed with lessons. (Please note that we will start to dismiss right at 3:00p on Tuesday afternoons.)

And, finally, with full excitement and anticipation, the oldest students in our class will also resume their Latin course soon, adding vocabulary and grammar lessons to their repertoire as they work hard to translate the ancient scroll in our classroom. This document relays an interesting story of a family living in Alexandria during the time when the city was the cultural center of the world. The challenge the students set for themselves is to finish translating the scroll, solving all of its mysteries, before graduation.

Discussions and comparisons of these three languages correlate very nicely with key Montessori lessons related to history, culture, geography and English grammar work. Children between six and twelve are naturally interested in understanding the origins and development of communication methods in ancient civilizations around the world. The complexity of Mandarin helps the students think more deeply about how cultures might have established languages several thousand years ago. In addition to paving the way for in-depth studies of classical Latin and historical contexts, learning Italian also provides an interesting link to studying the Renaissance, and enhances a student's understanding of scientific nomenclature and the terminology used in music. Beyond its historical significance, the study of Latin also brings about an understanding of the grammatical structure of the English language and the ability to break down vocabulary words into their etymological roots.

Lessons in our classrooms are thought of as a "gift" from the teacher to the child. The opportunity for exposure to these three classical methods of speaking and writing is certainly a unique privilege for our students.