Clock of Eras & Geological Time Scale Puzzles

In science we are currently talking about the timeline of life and all that goes along with the second great lesson. In the past we’ve used the traditional Montessori Clock of Eras in printed form. I struggle with it though because technically some of the “eras” are really “eons” now. I want our science work up to date — at least as much as I can pull off. The time scale is always changing based on discoveries of new rocks and fossils around the world.

I decided to create a Geological Time Scale work to help show more distinctly what’s eon, what’s era, and the time periods too. I made a Clock of Eras that matches it, and laser cut them out of Poplar. There was a lot of trial and error.

I like how they turned out. Now traditionally the Clock of Eras has colors for each era (or eon) that correspond to the Timeline of Life. The colors also represent little bits about the life story (Hadean Eon is black because it began in darkness, no life existed etc).

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My recent projects are really meant to help my kids see what an eon is vs an era vs a period and know that periods make up an era and eras make up an eon and so forth. So I did the eons all in red, eras in blue, periods in purple. We will still use the traditional Clock of Eras print out as well. I made a blank one of mine to color in as we talk about each era’s story. I also am making little booklets for them to illustrate. But I’ll post about those another time — hopefully. I will try to get my muddled mind to remember to do so.

I’m sooooo excited about this unit. It’s so much more involved than anything we’ve done previously with the Second Great Lesson. Can’t wait to show more science work soon.

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Psst…
I just opened an Etsy shop and hope to stock it with projects like this soon.

I uploaded printable versions of both of my projects to Teachers Pay Teachers: check them out at the links below.
Geological Time Scale
Clock of Eras