4th Grade Jamestown Animated Timelines
Fourth graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about Jamestown (VS.3), so today students in Ms. Anthony’s class created animated timelines about important events in Jamestown using Google slides. First I gave each student a copy of a blank Google slides template in Google classroom. I showed them how to add a background image of the James River (Background button > Image > Choose) and edit the title and subtitle on the first slide. On the second slide I showed them how to change the background color and use the line tool to create a timeline. We chose 3 important dates for our timeline and typed them in text boxes: 1600 Powhatan Indians live in Virginia, 1607 English arrive at Jamestown, and 1619 First representative government, House of Burgesses. Next we clicked the Image button and searched for pictures of each of these events. The students resized their pictures and moved them to the correct spots on the timeline. They also added animations to the events, making them appear in order. Finally we clicked File > Publish to the web and copied the link to share on Google classroom. You can see some of the students’ timelines here.