Thomas Edison Timeline

Thomas Edison Timeline lesson plan

Track how Edison's inventions changed everyday life. Imagine a world without lightbulbs or sound recordings!

  • 1.

    Read about U.S. inventor Thomas Edison. What years did he work? With what resources did he work? What challenges did he overcome? Find the dates and names of his major discoveries. What did his first lightbulbs, phonographs, and other items look like?

  • 2.

    Work with a small group of classmates to compile a list of Edison's most important inventions, and their dates, with Crayola® Colored Pencils. Be ready to explain why you think they are so important.

  • 3.

    Count out one button for each invention, or make small Crayola Model Magic replicas of each one.

  • 4.

    Glue the invention buttons or replicas in a line along the top of a large paper with Crayola School Glue. Connect them with a line of Crayola Glitter Glue. Dry.

  • 5.

    Write the dates and any information that is important about each invention on the timeline with Crayola Fine Line Markers. If you used buttons, draw a picture to represent the invention. Label each one. Title your Thomas Edison Timeline.

Benefits

  • Children research information about U.S. inventor Thomas Edison, who is best known for inventing the lightbulb and the phonograph.
  • Students find information about the dates of Edison's inventions, what these inventions did, and how they looked.
  • Students create a pictorial timeline of Edison's inventions, listing them in chronological order.

Adaptations

  • Tally which inventions students chose as Edison's most important. Which were chosen most often? Why?
  • Write about what it was like to live in Thomas Edison's time era. Edison was a lighthouse keeper and a carpenter in his early years, before some of his 1,093 ideas were patented, setting a world record. Compare and contrast how people live today, and what
  • Work individually or in small groups to create 3-D inventions. Write or tell the class about the invention's purpose. Draw blueprints to scale of how it was constructed.
  • Create similar timelines for other important people, events, or inventions. Find out what other scientific breakthroughs were necessary BEFORE Edison could come up with his ideas. For example, the unit of electrical current, ampere, is named for André Ampere, a French physicist who founded the science of electrodynamics.