Surprise Artifact Bag
Before Social Studies and Science Method class I was unaware of artifact bags. In my school years, we never used anything similar to this mini lesson. With this being said I enjoyed constructing this activity because it had me thinking creatively. Before picking out the artifacts I had to decide which explorer I wanted to do it on. Naturally the first explorer that came to mind was Henry Hudson, but I figured everyone in my Early Explorers groups would do the same thing. At this moment I had to think outside the box and think of all the explorers we taught to the second grades. I decided to go with the Pilgrims because I figured I could get artifacts from my father. It was convenient that my father group up near Plymouth and it would be an easier artifact bag for me, but I thought wrong. Unfortunately, my father did not have anything saved from Plymouth and I was left on my own to think of artifacts. I was having a hard time thinking of different artifacts, but I did some research and found some interesting artifacts that I could implement in this lesson. The first artifact I decided to make was a Pilgrim hat. I made it small enough so it could fit in the bag that I supplied the students with. My second artifact was the Plymouth rock which was very tiny, but they can get the idea from the given date on the surface of the rock. My other two artifacts were a burnt map of travel route and needles. All these artifacts signify some importance to the Pilgrims, but it also makes the students think logically through the inquiry process. After the artifacts were placed in the bag, I decided to make the bag authentic. I found fishing net and wrapped it around the bag because the Pilgrims used to fish for food and it tied in well with lesson. According to Lesson Planet, "Your artifacts don't need to be amazing or complex; real historians can learn from even these simple things. Actually, simplicity usually draws out more critical thinking. I also put out an "ad" on Facebook, asking for authentic memorabilia from this era, promising it would be cared for and used to further the education of the next generation..."(Mollie Moore, page 1). All of the artifacts that I choose are simple, but it will get the students to think of all the explorers that were taught about in the direct lesson. Once I was completely finished with the artifacts; it was time to create a presentation on my explorer. Instead of using Google Presentation, I decided to use Symbaloo to display my artifacts and embed my presentation that had the task that the students had to solve. In this PowerPoint I included the 5 W's of Social Studies and make duplicates of that specific slide. This was for students to collaborate together when pulling out the different artifacts. The 5 W's is important to learn because this aspect can relate to any subject that is out there in society. I was reading on one article and the 5 W's can relate to journalism and I found one quote that mentions this term. According to Andy Tattersall, "Applying the 5 W's to your research might not work for every piece of research, but it is a useful idea worth exploring" (Impact on Social Sciences, page 1). What I got from this article was the importance of the 5 W's and how it can change the outcome of the situation. This tool should be implemented regardless of the subject that you are teaching. Anyways... After constructing my Symbaloo page it was now time to implement this mini-lesson plan to my fellow colleagues. During this time I was ecstatic to see everyone's artifact bags and I was also excited for them to see mine. I can definitely see the impact on what this might have on the students. We eventually separated into our groups and began to present our artifact bags. I decided to go first in my group and I began by displaying the Symbaloo page and asked my fellow colleagues to look at the background of this page. Displayed on the background was a ship and the signified the Pilgrims ship. I wanted to have them see the connection with the artifacts and the ship that was displayed. All of my fellow colleagues answered this questions and then we decided to move forward with the lesson. As soon as they were done looking at the background, I pulled up the presentation and began to talk about what my colleagues will be doing today. On the second slide, there was a task for each of them to complete by seeing what's in the artifact bag and filling out the slides with the 5 W's. This would help them decide what explorer is related to artifacts. Emily decided to pull out the first artifact which was the Pilgrim hat. Immediately everyone in my group realized it was a Pilgrim hat, but they were still unsure of the mystery explorer. The next artifact that was pulled out of the bag was a burnt map that displayed their travel. Kim and Emily began to discuss the burnt map and see the correlation between the hat and the map. Both of them immediately thought of Christopher Columbus, but they were all still unsure of their decision. The next artifact that was pulled out was was the Plymouth Rock. Sarah examined this rock carefully and noticed a date on the surface of the rock. She then read the date that was stated and Emily immediately knew it was the Plymouth Rock. This really got my fellow colleagues to think about this explorer. Last but not least the last artifact was a box of needles. Sarah, Kim, and Emily then brainstormed the different ideas based off of the 5 W's and the artifacts. Their final decision on their mystery explorer was The Pilgrims. They based all of their prior knowledge to answer the question that I gave them. Overall I think this lesson went really well and it made my fellow colleagues think critically. The artifacts weren't easy enough for them to guess on the first try. After they were done finding the mystery explorer, I provided them with a book that I choose. The book that I would be implementing within this lesson is, If You Were At, The First Thanksgiving by Anne Kamma. We didn't have time to read the book, but I did a picture walk with my group to show them the theme of this book. When applying this lesson with my students, I will read this book before the artifact bag. It will give them
an essence of the different artifacts that the Pilgrims used. When I picked out this book I wanted to relate it to a third to fourth grade level. The lexile of this book hits right in between these two grades. This experience was very insightful because it helped me learn how to implement teaching social studies in an engaging way. I am looking forward to using this artifact bag while student teaching. Until next time bloggers :)
Before Social Studies and Science Method class I was unaware of artifact bags. In my school years, we never used anything similar to this mini lesson. With this being said I enjoyed constructing this activity because it had me thinking creatively. Before picking out the artifacts I had to decide which explorer I wanted to do it on. Naturally the first explorer that came to mind was Henry Hudson, but I figured everyone in my Early Explorers groups would do the same thing. At this moment I had to think outside the box and think of all the explorers we taught to the second grades. I decided to go with the Pilgrims because I figured I could get artifacts from my father. It was convenient that my father group up near Plymouth and it would be an easier artifact bag for me, but I thought wrong. Unfortunately, my father did not have anything saved from Plymouth and I was left on my own to think of artifacts. I was having a hard time thinking of different artifacts, but I did some research and found some interesting artifacts that I could implement in this lesson. The first artifact I decided to make was a Pilgrim hat. I made it small enough so it could fit in the bag that I supplied the students with. My second artifact was the Plymouth rock which was very tiny, but they can get the idea from the given date on the surface of the rock. My other two artifacts were a burnt map of travel route and needles. All these artifacts signify some importance to the Pilgrims, but it also makes the students think logically through the inquiry process. After the artifacts were placed in the bag, I decided to make the bag authentic. I found fishing net and wrapped it around the bag because the Pilgrims used to fish for food and it tied in well with lesson. According to Lesson Planet, "Your artifacts don't need to be amazing or complex; real historians can learn from even these simple things. Actually, simplicity usually draws out more critical thinking. I also put out an "ad" on Facebook, asking for authentic memorabilia from this era, promising it would be cared for and used to further the education of the next generation..."(Mollie Moore, page 1). All of the artifacts that I choose are simple, but it will get the students to think of all the explorers that were taught about in the direct lesson. Once I was completely finished with the artifacts; it was time to create a presentation on my explorer. Instead of using Google Presentation, I decided to use Symbaloo to display my artifacts and embed my presentation that had the task that the students had to solve. In this PowerPoint I included the 5 W's of Social Studies and make duplicates of that specific slide. This was for students to collaborate together when pulling out the different artifacts. The 5 W's is important to learn because this aspect can relate to any subject that is out there in society. I was reading on one article and the 5 W's can relate to journalism and I found one quote that mentions this term. According to Andy Tattersall, "Applying the 5 W's to your research might not work for every piece of research, but it is a useful idea worth exploring" (Impact on Social Sciences, page 1). What I got from this article was the importance of the 5 W's and how it can change the outcome of the situation. This tool should be implemented regardless of the subject that you are teaching. Anyways... After constructing my Symbaloo page it was now time to implement this mini-lesson plan to my fellow colleagues. During this time I was ecstatic to see everyone's artifact bags and I was also excited for them to see mine. I can definitely see the impact on what this might have on the students. We eventually separated into our groups and began to present our artifact bags. I decided to go first in my group and I began by displaying the Symbaloo page and asked my fellow colleagues to look at the background of this page. Displayed on the background was a ship and the signified the Pilgrims ship. I wanted to have them see the connection with the artifacts and the ship that was displayed. All of my fellow colleagues answered this questions and then we decided to move forward with the lesson. As soon as they were done looking at the background, I pulled up the presentation and began to talk about what my colleagues will be doing today. On the second slide, there was a task for each of them to complete by seeing what's in the artifact bag and filling out the slides with the 5 W's. This would help them decide what explorer is related to artifacts. Emily decided to pull out the first artifact which was the Pilgrim hat. Immediately everyone in my group realized it was a Pilgrim hat, but they were still unsure of the mystery explorer. The next artifact that was pulled out of the bag was a burnt map that displayed their travel. Kim and Emily began to discuss the burnt map and see the correlation between the hat and the map. Both of them immediately thought of Christopher Columbus, but they were all still unsure of their decision. The next artifact that was pulled out was was the Plymouth Rock. Sarah examined this rock carefully and noticed a date on the surface of the rock. She then read the date that was stated and Emily immediately knew it was the Plymouth Rock. This really got my fellow colleagues to think about this explorer. Last but not least the last artifact was a box of needles. Sarah, Kim, and Emily then brainstormed the different ideas based off of the 5 W's and the artifacts. Their final decision on their mystery explorer was The Pilgrims. They based all of their prior knowledge to answer the question that I gave them. Overall I think this lesson went really well and it made my fellow colleagues think critically. The artifacts weren't easy enough for them to guess on the first try. After they were done finding the mystery explorer, I provided them with a book that I choose. The book that I would be implementing within this lesson is, If You Were At, The First Thanksgiving by Anne Kamma. We didn't have time to read the book, but I did a picture walk with my group to show them the theme of this book. When applying this lesson with my students, I will read this book before the artifact bag. It will give them 
I really enjoyed the artifact bag activity. I too found it to test my creative thinking. I like the part where you thought picking Plymouth would be easier because of your dad, but then you find out it was hard because he didn't have any artifacts for you to use. You then further explain that you had to do research for your bags. I think this is an important component to creating artifact bags. In the classroom we could have students fill in a research page/outline that they would use to help them create their own artifact bags. The artifact bags with clues helps students to use prior knowledge and current content they are learning to further understand Social Studies. Great job on your blog!
ReplyDeleteErin,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this artifact bag experience with you. I believe that artifact bags should be a major component when teaching history to Elementary School students, don't you agree? With your artifact bag, you made it very clear what the artifacts bag purpose was and you did an amazing job. I also enjoyed that while you were opening my artifact bag, you mentioned that it was like opening a birthday present. That's exactly what I wanted it to feel like. This was a wonderful experience to go through with you.