Build-a-museum: Historical Artifact Activity for Grades 5 - 8

Historical artifacts are more than just fossils and pottery. Things we use every day will one day be considered artifacts. Challenge your students to think like historians and find artifacts from their everyday lives that will be significant in the future. This is a great project-based learning opportunity.

Grades 5 - 8 concentrates on the 18th - 20th centuries. This resource includes a list of possible artifacts for students to choose from. Keep in mind that some of the artifacts were invented/discovered in the previous century but didn't become important until the assigned century.

There is also a timeline add-on activity. Your students can create a timeline of their artifacts to help them understand the passage of time between their artifacts.

Organize time with the librarian and help students conduct research on their chosen artifacts. There are no links in this resource. It is NOT a webquest. You will need to organize time for students to research.

Information gathering pages are included to help students pinpoint the important information about their artifacts. A more formal writing page is included to have students write a display page that explains their artifact to museum visitors.

When it comes to displaying the artifacts, students can bring in their own artifacts but I'd suggest you gather them beforehand so students don't feel alienated if they can't provide an artifact. It is also acceptable to print images of the artifacts. Use real artifacts or toy representations.

This is the print-only version. If you'd rather get the Google Classroom™ version click here.

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What's Included:

• 1, 2, 3, or 4 artifacts pages
• Information gathering pages
• Display pages
• Artifact list
• Teacher guide

For my friend B who gave me the idea in the first place. : )