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Activity
Teaching Tolerance

Identity Artifacts Museum

For Teachers K - 2nd Standards
Who are you? It's a simple question, but younger learners have the opportunity to express their complex identities by making artifacts that represent parts of their identities. After engaging in the activity, they share who they are with...
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Interactive
Annenberg Foundation

Analyzing Artifacts

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
If only a mask could talk! Using the interactive tool along with historical thinking skills, pupils uncover the meaning behind the various materials the resource presents. History becomes more relevant as the artifacts tell their stories...
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Lesson Plan
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Museum of Tolerance

Artifact Research Activity

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
Artifacts give us the privilege of learning about the past, may it be family, culture, or traditions. Here, class members learn about their family's past with the help of an artifact, or family heirloom. Once an artifact is discovered,...
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Printables
Chicago History Museum

Reading Artifacts

For Teachers 9th - 12th
History detectives put their keen observation skills to the test as they closely examine artifacts. Drawing on visual and tactile clues, they formulate a theory about who done it, or in this case who made it, why, and for what purpose...
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Lesson Planet Article
Curated OER

Social Studies Lesson Plans With Science Connections

For Teachers 6th - 9th
There are great social studies lesson plans that can help students make historical connections to science.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Layer Cake Archaeology

For Teachers K - 2nd
Excavating cake? Why not! Kids spoon into some layers and artifacts during this tasty hands-on activity. The cake, a simulated archaeological dig, is the object of observation and discussion.
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Lesson Plan
University of Chicago

Using Artifacts for Clues About Identity

For Teachers 6th - 10th Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation

Artifacts Tell Stories: Creating a First World War Museum in the Classroom

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Although designed for the Canadian War Museum, the concept here is a solid one. Class members select an artifact from the First World War, examine it, research it, and craft an explanative label that they attach to their picture and post...
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Lesson Plan
Channel Islands Film

Telling Your Own Story

For Students 4th - 6th Standards
After watching and discussing a video on the Voyage of Cabrillo, individuals craft their own origin story and design and build an artifact they feel best represents their history.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

social Studies: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorow

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders take an Internet trip back in time to explore ancient cultures. Working in teams, they assume the roles of theologian, cartographer, economist, political analyst, and anthropologist. The same groups then create time...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Transparent Shoebox Dig

For Teachers K - 4th
Take this simulated archaeological dig one layer at a time with your young pupils to encourage observation, critical thinking, and careful attention. Using a transparent box full of layers of sand and artifacts, pupils examine the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Primary Sources and Personal Artifacts

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Connect historical text to primary sources. Researchers observe and discuss primary sources. Then, historians bring in their own personal artifacts and connect them back to their history.
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Lesson Planet Article
Curated OER

Creating Historians Part Two: The Grab Bag

For Teachers 9th - 11th
You don't need to be a museum curator to bring artifacts into the classroom; part two of a series on approaching social studies as a group of historians.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

This Old Ship

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Junior archaeologists will be able to describe shipwreck artifacts and the information they reveal. They work in small groups to reasearch wreckage features of different period ships, making this not only a science lesson, but a social...
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Lesson Plan
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Channel Islands Film

Cache: Lesson Plan 2 - Grades 4-6

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
Class members will dig this activity that has them trying their hand at recovering artifacts. Groups are assigned a section of a sandbox, carefully uncover the artifacts in their section, and then develop theories about who might have...
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Activity
Historica-Dominion Institute

Artifact Creation Activity

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Creating an artifact that is representative of a specific time period provides an opportunity for amateur historians to understand the importance of primary sources. This resource describes the process for students to explore original or...
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Lesson Plan
TCI

Picking Rusty Gold: Why Do People Buy and Sell Antiques?

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
Your historical sleuths will work to research the in-depth history of chosen artifacts and will use their research to design a fictional advertisement for an early 20th century item.
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Lesson Plan
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Channel Islands Film

Cache: Lesson Plan 1 - Grades 9-12

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Archaeologists have discovered a cache of Native American relics. They want to preserve these relics by removing them from the rapidly eroding site to a lab where they can be studied. Native American traditions demand that the items be...
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Interactive
Annenberg Foundation

Curating an Exhibit

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
A curated exhibit at a museum has a point of view. Artifacts are selected and arranged to cause viewers to contemplate this point of view or theme. An interactive provides class members with an opportunity to create an exhibit, to curate...
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Lesson Plan
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US House of Representatives

Objects in Time

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
What is the role artifacts play in the study of past events and people? As part of an examination of the careers and contributions of women in Congress from 1917 to 2006, groups examine artifacts that symbolize each woman.
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Lesson Plan
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PBS

Family History: Treasure Troves

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
It's time for show and tell! Scholars investigate historical artifacts to determine what secrets they reveal about the time periods they represent. They then research their own personal artifacts, as well as those from World War I. 
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Activity
PBS

Predicting/Making a Hypothesis

For Teachers 6th - 12th
As an introduction to the hypothesis and testing method of investigation, young history detectives engage in a special investigation of a family artifact. After watching a short video that demonstrates the method, they develop a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Social Studies: Exploring Boston's Big Dig

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students, in a high school class for autistic children, take a virtual tour of Boston's "Big Dig" and the artifacts discovered there. During weekly lab sessions, they discover the processes involved in artifact preservation. Using...
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Lesson Plan
National Park Service

The Power of Remembrance

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
On every July 4th, we watch fireworks and celebrate our independence, but how is the history of the American Revolution preserved? Four social studies lesson guide learners through different memorials, commemorative objects, and restored...