Artifacts Class Project

The assignment was to bring in five items that define you as a person culturally.  Everyone from the class had to go home and find five items that represent them.  Everyone’s five items were different while some similarities also appeared.  My list of five included: my iPod, a book, a New York Yankees t-shirt, my coffee mug, and post-it notes.  Each item had a specific meaning behind it.  The post-it notes represented my extreme use of them, the fact that I am very organized, and the busy lives people have in today’s world.  My iPod represents my love of technology, my constant use of it, and how much as a culture we depend on it.  My New York Yankees t-shirt represents how important sports are to many people and how much we value sports in our culture.  My coffee mug represents my need of coffee in the mornings and the role coffee has in our culture especially Starbucks.  The book represents my enjoyment of reading and learning. 

Many artifacts were similar among the group.  Many people had iPods or iPhones on the table, a lot of books were brought in, and a few items on the table showed the importance of sports and enjoyment of outdoor activities.  Many other connections can be made through the items from person to person.  It shows that many of us have similar interests and define our culture in similar ways.  We all have some differences as well as commonalities.  This was a fun and interesting activity.  We learned a lot about one another, our culture, and ourselves.  This could easily turn into a writing activity about your items or what it says about the culture.  You could turn this into an oral activity by having students talk in groups about their items and their discoveries.  Students could form questions and predictions about a certain item they find interest in.  There are many different Language Arts activities you could incorporate within this Social Studies activity.

Here are two blog links I found related to the idea of creating interactive Social Studies activities and lessons for students:

Found some interesting ideas here!  

More ideas here!