Decide how long a period of time you want your timeline to represent. Decide on scale. Use the red tape to mark the centuries, the blue tape to mark the in-between decades. Make date cards to mark the centuries and half-centuries. Make timeline cards for a few other events you have been discussing in classperhaps Columbus' first voyage to North America, the landing of the Mayflower, or the Declaration of Independence.
Students continue to make timeline cards as the year progresses.
B. Find a large space to unfurl the timeline. We use our cafeteria. The class sits on bleachers on the side of the room so they can see the entire timeline. We tie the timeline to a stool or support at one end of the room, then have a student unfurl the timeline to its full extent. The students determine that this is a timeline and identify what the hanging objects represent.