Artifact Bags

It is true, artifacts are everywhere. They surround us and most of the time we aren't aware of it. Artifact bag projects are a fun way to bring awareness to the artifacts that exist in an area of study.

To start my artifact bag project, I asked my students, in this case my fellow classmates, to define the word artifact for me. They were spot on with the definition.

Artifact is an item made by a human being, typically an item or historical or cultural interest.

Next, I went on to explain to them that an artifact can be a primary or a secondary source. I then had them define for me, primary and secondary source. Again, they had the definitions perfect.

Primary source: an artifact, source, or document, a recording, or other source of information that was created at the time under study.
Secondary Source: documents written after an event has occurred, providing secondhand accounts of that event, person, or topic.

I then went on to show them my artifacts.

Artifact 1

This is a letter from Sebastian Brandt to Henry Hoverer. It was written January 13, 1622.
Before I told my students that information I asked them questions such as, What do you think this is? What do you think the purpose of it is? When do you think it was from?

They replied: a letter, about life in either the new colony or life in an old country, sometime in the early 1600's or 1700's. I assured them that their answers were pretty close. I then went on to tell them the story behind the letter.

Artifact 2

These artifacts are dice that have been discovered around the areas of the original Jamestown settlement.  They are made of bone, ivory, and cast lead.  They were used for child and adult gaming back when the colony first settled. 

I asked the students what they thought they could be used for and what they were made out of. Their answers were close to what the correct answers actually are. 

Artifact 3

This is a quartz crystal point. These belonged to indians who inhabited the area of jamestown before the colonists. They were used in bow and arrow hunting. They could also be given as gifts to the settlers by the indians who roamed the land before the settlers. I asked the students what they thought the quartz could be used for and all 4 of them said the thought it could be used for hunting. 

A fun website that has a game about jamestown is historyglobe.com In this game, the player is a jamestown settler. The settler has to make choices regarding their colony and at the end, depending on the choices the player makes, the colony either fails or thrives and it shows the player the data at the end. 

The rest of my artifact bag powerpoint is linked below. 

I like doing artifact bags I would definitely use them in my future classroom because I think that it brings insights of colonial life to the students and they are able to see how the indians and early settler really lived and how it is different from our life today.