"Time Line" Activity

Have your students explore the stories in the Canada Remembers Times and have them, individually or in groups create a time line.

The time line could feature a number of important dates and anniversaries, including the dates of the major wars, battles and engagements mentioned in the newspaper. To make the time line more relevant and to help students better connect with the activity, the time line could also feature:

1. The birth dates of the students, their parents and their grandparents;
2. Significant events, such as:
   • Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia enter confederation (1867)
   • Manitoba enters confederation (1870)
   • British Columbia enters confederation (1871)
   • Prince Edward Island enters confederation (1873)
   • The ‘last spike’ for Trans Canada railroad (1885)
   • Saskatchewan and Alberta enter confederation (1905)
   • First World War begins (1914)
   • Women first gain right to vote in a Federal election (1917)
   • Second World War begins (1939)
   • Newfoundland enters confederation (1949)
   • Korean War begins (1950)
   • Nobel Peace Prize for Lester B. Pearson (1957)
   • Canada’s maple leaf flag adopted (1965)
   • Canada’s centennial of Confederation (1967)
   • October Crisis (1970)
   • The “Summit Series” between Canadian and Soviet hockey teams (1972)
   • Montreal hosts Summer Olympics (1976)
   • Terry Fox's 'Marathon of Hope' (1980)
   • Space shuttle Canadarm first used (1981)
   • Calgary Winter Olympics (1988)
   • UN Peacekeepers awarded Nobel Peace Prize (1988)
   • The end of apartheid in South Africa (1991-92)
   • Kim Campbell becomes Canada's first female Prime Minister (1993)
   • Major ice storm in Eastern Canada (1998)
   • The Indonesian tsunami (2004)
   • Canada's gold medal in hockey at the Vancouver Olympics (2010)
   • The Japanese earthquake and tsunami (2011)
   • The end of Canada’s military engagements in Afghanistan (2014)
   • The forest fire in Fort McMurray (2016)
   • The date any new Canadian students and their families arrived in your community and began attending your school.

If you have students who have recently moved to Canada, you may wish to take this opportunity to discuss with the class:

• the similarities and differences between Canada and their country of origin
• dates of significance in their own countries of origin
• their cultures and traditions
• how new Canadians have contributed to shaping our culture
• how Canada might look like in the future

The time line could be created by the student(s) using electronic software of their choice, or on a large sheet of graph paper, and then placed on the wall. To close the activity, you could have the class discuss the significance of each of the events placed along the time line.