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History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 4

Use Sources and Build a Timeline

Fourth graders learn the tools for studying Illinois history: dating systems (BCE and CE), decades and centuries, building a timeline to scale from Cahokia to statehood in 1818, judging how useful a source is for a question (including a real 1787 primary source), and handling sources that disagree, such as the different dates given for Jean Baptiste Point du Sable's settlement at Chicago.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 85 minutes
  • Sources and timelines check: 10 questions
  • Ways to answer: choose an answer, match pairs, type a number, place on a number line, put in order and sort into groups
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What learners will discover

  • Use BCE and CE, decades and centuries to describe when events happened and calculate time between events.
  • Build and read a timeline of early Illinois history drawn to a consistent scale.
  • Judge how useful a source is for a question using its maker, date, place, audience and purpose.
  • Corroborate sources and explain how historians handle sources that disagree.

Lessons

  1. Measuring historical time 5 steps3 practiceabout 20 min
  2. A timeline of early Illinois 4 steps2 practiceabout 22 min
  3. How useful is this source? 5 steps3 practiceabout 22 min
  4. When sources disagree 5 steps2 practiceabout 21 min
  5. Sources and timelines check 10 questions at the end

Keep exploring

More 4th grade social studies

Guide for grown-ups