My Timeline: Growing and Learning

Advanced
Age: 4-7
This is a whole year project.
Children create personal timelines using photos and drawings, reflect on how they have grown, and celebrate their learning and achievements.
Growth mindset Managing learning
Art Cognitive task Conversation
  • Collage paper
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Markers
  • Crayons
  • Roll of paper
  • Photographs of children as babies and toddlers
My Timeline: Growing and Learning

Print version

Preparation

  • Prepare a long roll of paper, crayons, and markers.
  • Ask parents to provide photos of their children as babies and toddlers.
  • Prepare scissors, glue, and collage paper.
  • Collect photos of all children at a younger age. You may also use photos from kindergarten.
  • Ensure that each child has several photos. Support families who may not have many or cannot print them - no child should feel left out because of missing pictures.

Implementation

Gather the children and begin a conversation:

  • What do you remember from when you were little?
  • Do you have photos at home? How do you keep your memories?
  • What were you like when you were small? What can you do now that you couldn’t do before? How did you learn it?

Encourage storytelling and sharing.

Measuring our growth

One child at a time lies down on the long roll of paper while another child marks their length with a marker and cuts the paper to size.

Each child then marks one end of the strip as the beginning and the other end with an arrow, showing the timeline as a journey that continues.

Creating personal timelines

Children place their baby and toddler photos along the paper strip, arranging them in order by age. When they are satisfied with the sequence, they glue the photos to the timeline and decorate it as they wish.

Sharing our stories

Invite each child to talk about their timeline:

  • What were you like when you were little?
  • How did you learn to walk, run, talk?
  • When did you first come to kindergarten? How did it feel?

Encourage them to share both the challenges and successes, from early difficulties when starting kindergarten to making friends and learning new games and skills.

Reflection

Discuss with the children:

  • What was it like to make your timeline?
  • What did you like most? What was difficult?
  • Could you remember yourself when you were small?
  • How do you feel now that you’ve grown up? How far have you come? How did you manage it?

Celebrate their growth as a group and reinforce the idea that learning and change take time and effort.

Variations and Additional Ideas

Act out or demonstrate some things they couldn’t do before but can do now.

Draw or paint new skills and glue these drawings onto the timeline.