Materials:

• brown craft paper
• markers, crayons, pencils
• chart paper
• airtight plastic bags (for take-home activity)

Objective: Children and families will work together to develop a time line documenting important dates and events since the child's birth. This activity will encourage the development of time and sequence concepts, family involvement, and language, literacy, and fine-motor skills.

ACTIVITY

1. Prepare a time line that documents events in your life. The time line will highlight important dates from your birth to the present. You can include drawings or photocopies of photographs to illustrate the events. Present the time line to the class during group time. Encourage children to describe what they learned from the time line.

2. Invite children to prepare a time line, with the assistance of their families, to document important dates and events in their lives. Ask children to create a list of special events in their lives, such as their birth, their birthdays, birth of a sibling, first day of school, preschool graduation, and so on.

3. Prepare take-home activity bags for children's time line project. Send home a long sheet of brown craft paper, several markers, several sheets of drawing paper, and a glue stick. Include more or less take-home materials depending upon the needs of your class. Prepare a note to families outlining the objective of the activity with a sample time line to serve as a guide.

4. Ask parents to encourage children to create their own drawings or choose pictures to illustrate the events and write the dates and time line information themselves, if possible. Include a specific date for children to present their time line and return the classroom materials.

5. Schedule a day or two for children to present their time lines. Extend an invitation for family members to attend the presentations. Following the presentations, ask children to summarize what they learned about each other through their time lines. Find an area in the classroom or hallway to exhibit the children's time lines and summary.

Curriculum Connection

Art: Sequence of Self-Portraits.
Explain to children that they will create three self-portraits: one as a baby, one that portrays how they currently look, and one portrait of how they think they will look when they are adults. Children can refer to baby photographs and current photographs, and use mirrors to create their drawings. Provide children with paper and art materials. Mount the children's work on larger sheets of construction paper to create frames. Find a space to make a class portrait gallery to exhibit their work

BOOKS
How Have I Grown?*
by Mary Reid
(Scholastic Inc.; $2.21)

Let's Look at Growing
by Nicola Tuxworth
(Lorenz Books, 1997; $4.95)

Once Upon a Springtime*
By Jean Marzollo
(Scholastic Inc.; $2.62)