Artifact Bags

Artifact Bag

Today In class we did an artifact bag activity based on our unit plan topics. My topic was on the thirteen colonies. For the activity we had to pick a specific pace or person and then come up with three artifacts that would help the students figure out that place. I chose the colony of Rhode Island. In order to make more authentic artifacts I went to Michael's and got textured paper. I printed out the religious freedom document on this paper and a picture of Roger Williams. I also included a picture of people building ships with lumber. These artifacts went inside a bag that was decorated with the 13 colonies. 

During class we were split into groups to teach our artifact bags too. This is the power point that I used to teach: PPT. In the power point it contains the directions for the activity and a place to record the information they found on the artifact. If I were to use this in a real classroom I would have had my students use their textbooks and the internet to figure out which colony they had. 

I really liked some on my peers artifacts. One of the people in my group used a tea bag to make the paper look distressed and old fashioned. Other people burned the sides of the paper which I thought was really cool. This activity allowed for everyone in the class to be creative and it had great results.

In my future classroom I would really like to use this idea. I think this could be a great get to know you activity in the beginning of the year. Students could create the artifact bag based on themselves. In upper elementary school class this could also be used when teaching about certain topics in history. I think that students would really enjoy this project.