How to Develop an Apple History Timeline
A timeline using historical events surrounding a known food like apples is interesting and a good way to memorize events in history. Apples were a food or fruit that were part of American and European history. You are going to make a historical linear or comparative timeline using key historical fact or events about apples.This lesson will teach kids how to pick out important historical events and organize them according to dates. They will learn how events are arranged from month to month and year to year. They will devise a timeline by selecting the events and writing them on paper, then drawing the timeline using paper, pencil and rulers. This is a simple but effective learning tool.
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Things You'll Need
- Two pieces of paper for each child
- Erasers
- Books about apple history
- Computer with Internet access
- Internet sites about apple history
- Pencils
- Rulers
Instructions
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How to Develop An Apple History Timeline
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A timeline is a description of events as they occurred in certain periods of time in history. The events can be historical, political, cultural or factual depending on the focus of the timeline. A food like apples is a common food product that people used throughout history. The children will develop a timeline based on events surrounding apples. Timelines can be linear or comparative. Linear timelines are used for one topic or series of events and can be drawn horizontally or vertically. The children can choose a food made of apples like apple pie or research the history of the fruit. When doing research they will be using books an online Internet resources. You will use two pieces of paper: one to write events and other to draw timeline and write events as a finished project.
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A comparative timeline compares two subjects or topics that occurred during a period of history. A comparative timeline is usually drawn horizontally with events listed from top to bottom. It gives a good picture of what is occurring in a historical time period. In a linear timeline, events are listed from left to right in the order that they occured. Before the children begin research for the project, define the time frame or dates that the children should look for historical events. You might want events between 1600-1700 or 1800 to 2008. Giving a period of time lets everyone work on the same history timeline.
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Begin the research using good nonfiction books about apples. They can read the books and write historical facts or choose some good Internet site for research. One good site to do research about apples online is the Food Timeline at http://www.foodtimeline.org/. It is excellent for researching apples and products made from apples. It can be used for the comparative timeline by comparing apples to cherries or apple pie to cherry pie. When researching the timeline, have the children write down 10 historical events or facts to put in the timeline. Remember to write the date with month, day and year if shown. For example, in 1765, apple butter was made by cooking pureed apples with cider. Tell children to find 10 events with dates for a linear timeline and 20 fo a comparative timeline. They will need to find 10 events for apples and 10 for cherries.
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Decide how you want to divide the timeline. Do you want to divide it into such segments as year, month or day? This will give your projects consistency. Other excellent Internet sites to use for research on apples is Apples and More The University of Illinois Extension at http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/apples/history.html Another great listing of food sites for kids to do research is Ask.com or Kidepide at http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/food/index.htm Here you will find several links like the website Apples and more. One final note: Tell the children they cannot list every event but to choose what interests them and seems important. When the children have written the events on paper, they can draw the timeline using a ruler and pencil.
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When writing the dates and events on a timeline, you may want to draw a dot or circle to highlight the events. After the children finish the timeline, you can encourage them to draw something that relates to the timeline. For example. a picture of apples, apple pie or Johnny Appleseed could highlight the timeline. The comparative timeline should draw two horizontal lines and divide the lines into 10 segments. They should list events from top to bottom. After completing the project the children should ask what these events tell us about the historical period. You should them discuss their timelines.
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Tips & Warnings
You can have them take the timeline they designed and do a version of this in Microsoft Word. There is a webpage that gives more information at http://www.microsoft.com/education/TimelinesWord.mspx The timeline is done in the Microsoft Word program.
When writing the events, have the children write the copy in their own words. Don't let them copy what they read word for word or print it out. Too often children like to use the easy way to write something. Let them take notes, then work with them and make sure they are writing their own version. Try to use several books and Internet sources when designing the timeline.
