University of Chicago
Using Artifacts for Clues About Identity
Learn about the ancient Near East through a close examination of ancient artifacts. Lead your class into analysis by first observing an artifact as a class. Pupils can then work in pairs to analyze the other artifacts and compile a list...
Curated OER
Treasure Tales
Create an artifact kit to engage your young learners. Then, assign small groups a section of chapter three. They will identify the main idea and three supporting details for their section. Then, they select one artifact from the kit that...
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Stampin' Around Chicago
Students discuss the United States Postal Service and choose an artifact from one decade. In this art lesson, students research how the artifact chosen relates to Chicago and the United States. Students create their own postage stamp...
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How to "Read" an Artifact
Middle schoolers discuss the types of information they can get from artifacts. In groups, they practice "reading" artifacts and determining their usage. They use inferences to test against official information about certain pieces. ...
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Transportation Through Time
Students write a short story illustrating the past and imaging the future in transportation. In this transportation lesson plan, students explore artifacts that have to do with transportation in the past in Chicago.
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Chronology: Visual Timeline
Learners begin their timelines with the first narrative that they read and add to the timeline as they go. They create a list of history topics and themes that are important to the story. Students add these as sub-headings to the...
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The Museum Idea
Students evaluate and record the various types of museum careers. In this The Museum Idea lesson, students create a bicentennial time capsule, design a Museum of me, and make a classroom mini museum. In addition students visit a local...
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Scrapbook
Learners read a book and use the internet to find images to accompany it. After choosing one of the artifacts, they complete a full analysis worksheet and write a journal entry about how the artifact was used. To end the lesson plan,...
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The Golden Spike
Students investigate modern transportation in the 19th century by examining artifacts. In this U.S. history lesson, students read the story Joseph's Railroad Dreams, and discuss the Golden Spike used in the first transcontinental...
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Tall Tales: Reconstructing A Personal Tell
Sixth graders discover the ways archaeologists examine artifacts and where they are found. After being introduced to new vocabulary, they use artifacts from their own lives and discover what could be told about their life from them. ...
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Home Sweet Home
Students complete activities with the books Color Me Dark, The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, and The Great Migration North. For this literature/History lesson, student read the story and discuss the plot. They analyze photographs taken...
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Reader's Theater
Students act out and interpret the story for their peers. They study the simplest form of an organized reading to a more elaborate activity involving props, costumes, or a reinterpretation of the narrative into another art form.
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Writing Places American Communities
Students interview a member of the community and write a piece of poetry using the voice of the interviewee.