Organization for the Timeline of Life - History Fair

Students are working during the month of February to create their backboards for our Timeline of Life / History Fair, coming up on Thursday!

Note: Previous activities done in December to kick off the Timeline of Life:

The Stuff of Stars by Marion Dane Bauer

Timeline of Life calendars

Here's how we are organizing all of our February research & prep time:

Week One

Mon

How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World by Faith McNulty

Frans Lanting TED talk




Tue


read from The Story of Life by Katie Scott and supplement with Prehistoric Actual Size and Apex Predators by Steve Jenkins


Gallery 1: Precambrian Time (4.6 BYA - 541 MYA)
Actual Size - protozoa


Gallery 2: Paleozoic Era - 6 Periods

Cambrian Period (541 MYA - 485 MYA)
Apex Predators - Anomalocaris

Ordovician Period (485 MYA - 444 MYA)

Silurian (444 MYA - 419 MYA)
Actual Size - sea scorpion
Apex Predators - Trigonotarbid

Devonian (419 MYA - 359 MYA)
Actual Size - spiny shark
Apex Predators - sea scorpion, Dunkleosteus

Carboniferous (359 MYA - 299 MYA)
Actual Size - Diplocaulus, dragonfly, cockroach, millipede

Permian (299 MYA - 252 MYA)
Apex Predators - Dimetrodon, Mastodonsaurus




Wed

read from The Story of Life by Katie Scott and supplement with Prehistoric Actual Size and Apex Predators by Steve Jenkins


Gallery 3: Mesozoic Era - 3 Periods

Triassic Period (252 MYA - 200 MYA)
Actual Size - Dinocephalosaurus, Saltopus

Jurassic Period (200 MYA - 145 MYA)
Actual Size - Morganucodon

Cretaceous Period (145 MYA - 65 MYA)
Actual Size - Velociraptor, Dsungaripterus, Baryonyx, Giganotosaurus, Protoceratops
Apex Predators - Utahraptor, Spinosaurus, Tylosaurus, Hatzegopteryx




Thu

read from The Story of Life by Katie Scott and supplement with Prehistoric Actual Size and Apex Predators by Steve Jenkins


Gallery 4: Cenozoic Era - 3 Periods

Paleogene (65 MYA - 23 MYA)
Actual Size - Leptictidium
Apex Predators - Titanoboa

Neogene (23 MYA - 2.58 MYA)
Actual Size - terror bird, Epigaulus
Apex Predators - Daedon, Teratorn, marsupial saber-tooth, terror bird

Quaternary (2.58 MYA to present)
Apex Predators - giant short-faced bear


students turn in report requests (first, second & third choice)

Week Two

Mon


start new read aloud story, The Monster Shark's Tooth: Canoeing from the Chesapeake Bay into the Ancient Miocene Sea by Peter Vogt

remind children that the formation of the Earth happened approximately 4.6 BYA

practice reading big numbers by playing the Dice Game to the billions place (10 lines)



explain decimal terms such as 4.6 BYA and 2.58 MYA

announce which time period each child will research

explain how the Timeline of Life Museum will be set up in the house

pass out Montessori books for each time period (FREE PDF of the Cretaceous Period book) and let children begin to take notes

organize hanging files with a file folder for each Geologic Period




Tue

read They Turned to Stone by Julian May

continued research (look through my larger collection of Timeline of Life books, find your time period, write notes, include book title and page number, mark the books you'd like in your display)




Wed

field trip to Parkinson Laboratory at SIU to take further notes and look at how they set up their displays

read Grandmother Fish by Jonathan Tweet and look at the Tree of Life illustration in the front, imagine how big it would be if it included all the failed designs (animals / plants / fungi which are now extinct)




Thu

look through my fossils to see what I have for each time period

have one-on-one meetings with each child to hear their thoughts about how they'd like to set up their backboards (one section each for Geology, Zoology, Botany)

Week Three

Mon



I'll update my notes for our final week as we go through it!

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