History is alive! That is one of the important messages that teacher Barbara Knighton communicates to her students as she develops engaging stories about changes in farming, government, clothing, or transportation, using timelines as her basis. In this article, the authors describe how Knighton constructs social studies units for her first and second graders using cultural universals and illustrated timelines, and provide several guiding principles and questions for the effective use of timelines as pedagogical tools in teaching social studies to elementary school students. Narratives built around timelines, illustrated with artifacts and other visuals, create genuine understanding and appreciation in children.