Last month, students made a timeline of all the presidents in American history (and despite their best Wikipedia efforts, there were no presidents prior to 1776).  We detailed which presidents belonged to the modern Democratic party (or the historical version of that party) and the modern Republican party (or the historical version of that party).  Our timeline was pretty sweet.

Today, after our completed look at the roles and responsibilities of the Legislative Branch, we added to our timeline (some students were far from pleased about this).  We added some key moments in Congressional history.  These moments are just as important as the people who have lead our country.

Don’t worry; next up is adding some major Judicial moments!

As part of our review of the Executive Branch, I asked students to complete a basic timeline concerning which presidents have served over the course of our country.  Many of the students struggled to remember some of the basic timelining skills they practiced last year.

Each student is now relearning how to create, accurately label, complete, and read a timeline; which is based off of our presidential history.  The timelines are done to scale and are allowing use to work out the process of trial and error.

Additionally, this activity is giving us an opportunity to study more in-depth some of the major events in American history; which will subsequently be put on our timeline.  This is just a start, but hopefully one that will provide students with a better understanding of our history so they can have a greater appreciation for our present and future.