This week in class we have been working on artifact bags! We first got to play the role of the student and in a group we were historians! We got to research and try to figure out the Five W's (Who, What, Where, When, and Why) these items were important. We had to solve each artifact to figure out who the person was, and we did it! Together my group discovered that the person was our teacher Professor Smirnova! I really enjoyed doing this activity because it was a fun way to learn about our teacher.
Then...the roles changed! We became the teachers and we were told to put together an artifact bag that contained three or four artifacts , a book, a primary source and a website for our classmates to try to guess who or what we were! These artifact bags were based off of the unit plans that we taught to the fifth graders, so one person from each group met with another person from the other groups and we taught each other using our artifact bags. This was a fun way to learn about each of the groups assignment.
BUT WHAT DID I PUT IN MY ARTIFACT BAG?!
I tried to come up with a few clues that could only belong to John Smith; as well as, clues that could have belonged to someone else. I took this approach because I wanted to challenge my fellow classmates. I chose the charter given to John Smith from England to settle in Jamestown. I choose this charter because I thought that it was a good primary source of information. I also thought that it could help my classmates figure out who but not giving it away completely. I chose a map of Virginia from the 1607’s. I chose this because I needed my classmates to know where the mystery person went. I chose tobacco and a tobacco leaf because, this was the cash crop of Virginia. I chose the family crest of John Smith, because this is something unique to John Smith. The family crest was something my classmates had to look up to figure out what it was, and what it was used for. I chose the book “The Jamestown Colony” by Gail Skaurai, because I wanted to give my classmates some information about Jamestown. I included a few websites that I found that I thought would be helpful in their research.
I used a website from the history channel, a website that contained a lot of history of Jamestown along with a video.
Teaching each other these lessons was a good way for us to practice and to become more confident in teaching lessons to a class. I thought this was a creative way to teach social studies.
IN THE CLASSROOM
This can be incorporated into any topic that you teach. It is tool that can be used to have students wear a different 'hat" while learning. They can become historians, researchers or archaeologists.
My challenge for you is to use artifact bags to engage your students in a new aspect of learning.
Until next time
I agree with you that it was fun to play the role of the student for a change. We do this when our peers' present lessons and presentations for us in class, but not as much with fun hands on activities. This is a great way to see if the activities we are going to do with our students are actually engaging and fun! We can do artifact bags in a bunch of subjects like you said! It may not be as easy in other subjects as it is in social studies, but we have t be creative as teachers. I enjoyed this post and look forward to seeing your other posts!
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