Biography TImelines

A quick and easy way to separate main idea and details, while reading biographies and learning about the genre, is to create a timeline of a person's life.  This also solidifies the idea of chronological order, has children return to text to seek out information, and gives them the opportunity to learn about an influential person. 

Here are a few examples of timelines of Walt Disney's life, based on one particular biography, but we did additional research using other sources also.

Younger children or children with limited English can simply draw big events and perhaps label them, while older children can additionally write about the person's life, highlighting their accomplishments.

The Noisy Paintbox/Abstract Art Activity

Here is a fun activity that I did with third grade students after we read The Noisy Paintbox a biographical picture book of Vasya Kandindsky.  I also supplemented the lesson with images on an iPad showing paintings of his.  The children did a watercolor painting inspired by his work and then wrote a short paragraph about why they chose to do this particular painting.


Here are some examples of their work: