Artifact Bag Project

Our class was instructed to create an artifact bag to present in class to our groups. An artifact bag is a mystery bag of items (artifacts) which student examine using their senses, analyze, and come to a conclusion about. It is common for students to be required to fill out a chart about the who, what, where, when , and why of each artifact during their examination to help them analyze the items.

My artifact bag related to the topic of my fieldwork lessons which was "The Battle That Changed History." My artifacts included a picture of where the battle took place (senlac hill), a picture of the normans and anglo-saxons battling each other, a crown, and a bow and arrow. These items all relate to the battle of hastings so the students after examining and analyzing them would come to the conclusion that all of these artifacts help understand how the battle changed history. Our class split into groups and we each presented our artifact bag project. As I was presenting, I had a google slides presentation up on the computer to guide me through the lesson. If I was teaching this in real life to a class, I would have the google slides follow through my teaching of this activity for a fifth grade class.

If I was going to actually teach this lesson, it would be taught through the inquiry process. The lesson would

begin with a review of the vocabulary words and then continue by going over the definition of an artifact if the students do not have background knowledge of the word. The scientific method would be reviewed, as in all Inquiry lessons. Then I would explain the chart that the students would be filling out. After all of the explanation is finished I will distribute the artifact bags and the students would begin their examination process. When the students have analyzed the items in their bags and completed their charts to come to a conclusion, they would be given the opportunity to present their findings. Each group would present their bags and their conclusion to the class.

Artifact bags are a great way to have students working hands on with manipulatives and discovering Social Studies ideas on their own with guidance from the teacher.
I will definitely utilize them in my own classroom when teaching Social Studies!