Placing BCE and CE Events on a Scaled Timeline
About this lesson
In this 50-minute Grade 5 history lesson, small groups build a one-metre timeline from 3000 BCE to 2000 CE. They measure where eight world events belong and work out how many years separate them. Children learn how BCE and CE dates work and how a scale helps us see the true length of the past. You need paper strips, rulers, markers and tape.
- Grade
- 5
- Subject
- History
- Time
- 50 min
Objective
Students will apply a metric scale to place BCE and CE events accurately on a timeline and calculate the number of years between two historical events.
Materials
- Long paper strips or sheets of paper taped end to end to make one-metre strips (one per group)
- Metre sticks or 30 cm rulers
- Markers and pencils
- Sticky notes
- Masking tape
- Whiteboard with the eight events and dates written on it
Hook
Write this statement on the board: 'Cleopatra lived closer in time to the first Moon landing than to the building of the Great Pyramid of Giza.' Students vote true or false with a thumbs up or thumbs down. Don't reveal the answer yet. Tell them that by the end of the lesson their group will be able to prove it on a timeline they build themselves.
Main Activity
Put students in groups of three or four and give each group a one-metre paper strip. Explain the scale of 1 cm = 50 years, so the strip runs from 3000 BCE at 0 cm to 2000 CE at 100 cm. Groups first measure and mark the line between BCE and CE at 60 cm, then label every 10 cm with its year. Remind them that BCE years count down toward that line and CE years count up from it. Next, groups work out the position of each event on the board, write it on a sticky note and place it. Answer key: Great Pyramid built about 2560 BCE (8.8 cm), Code of Hammurabi about 1754 BCE (24.9 cm), first recorded Olympic Games 776 BCE (44.5 cm), China first unified under one emperor 221 BCE (55.6 cm), paper-making recorded in China 105 CE (62.1 cm), fall of the Western Roman Empire 476 CE (69.5 cm), Gutenberg's printing press about 1440 CE (88.8 cm) and the first Moon landing 1969 CE (99.4 cm). Finally, each group solves three distance problems: years from the Great Pyramid to the Olympic Games, from the Olympic Games to paper-making, and from Cleopatra (about 30 BCE) to the Moon landing compared with Cleopatra to the Great Pyramid. Group members must agree on each method before writing an answer, and they use the timeline to check whether the hook statement is true.
Discussion Questions
- Why do BCE years get smaller as they get closer to the present, while CE years get bigger?
- How did your group work out the number of years between a BCE event and a CE event? Did anyone find a different method that also worked?
- What surprised you when you saw how far apart the events really were on the scaled timeline?
- Why might a timeline without an even scale give people the wrong idea about the past?
- Which part of the timeline is most crowded with events, and why might historians know more about some periods than others?
Exit Ticket
A town was founded in 300 BCE and abandoned in 200 CE. About how many years did it last, and how far apart would these two dates be on your timeline in centimetres? Explain your thinking in one or two sentences. (Answer: about 500 years, or 10 cm.)
Differentiation
Support: Give struggling groups a strip with the 10 cm marks and century labels already written in. Give them a simple rule card: 'If both dates are BCE or both are CE, subtract. If one is BCE and one is CE, add.' Let them place events by rounding to the nearest 100 years first, then adjust if time allows.
Extension: Advanced students research or recall the birth year of a grandparent and the year they were born, add both to the timeline, and work out how many centimetres their family history covers. They then explain why there is no year 0 between 1 BCE and 1 CE and how this changes their distance calculations by one year.
