University of Chicago
Using Artifacts for Clues About Identity
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...
Curated OER
Treasure Tales
Create an artifact kit to engage your young learners. Then, assign small groups a section of chapter three. They will identify the main idea and three supporting details for their section. Then, they select one artifact from the kit that...
Curated OER
The ABC's of Artifacts
Learners create their own ABC book about artifacts. In this artifact lesson, students read ABC History Mystery and review the artifacts pictured in the book. They create their own ABC book with each student working on a letter.
Curated OER
Stampin' Around Chicago
Young scholars discuss the United States Postal Service and choose an artifact from one decade. For this art lesson, students research how the artifact chosen relates to Chicago and the United States. Young scholars create their own...
Curated OER
Life Story of an Artifact
Students write about an artifact that they are studying. In this artifacts lesson plan, students analyze details of the artifact and answer short answer questions about it.
Curated OER
How to "Read" an Artifact
Middle schoolers discuss the types of information they can get from artifacts. In groups, they practice "reading" artifacts and determining their usage. They use inferences to test against official information about certain pieces. ...
Curated OER
Treasure Chest
Students explore Chicago in the fur-trading era. In this Chicago lesson, students discover what life what like during this time. Students read an historical fiction story about life in the fur-trade era. Students view replicas of...
Curated OER
Traveler's Trunk
Students analyze and interpret artifacts from the 1920s and explore the Great Migration. In this 1920s history lesson, students review background information about the Great Migration and use artifacts to study history of Chicago....
Curated OER
"L" Stands for Elevated
Students play a trivia game to learn more about the Chicago public transportation system. In this transportation lesson plan, students also create an "L" car, and write advertising slogans for Chicago's elevated trains.
Curated OER
Transportation Through Time
Students write a short story illustrating the past and imaging the future in transportation. In this transportation lesson plan, students explore artifacts that have to do with transportation in the past in Chicago.
Curated OER
Chronology: Visual Timeline
Learners begin their timelines with the first narrative that they read and add to the timeline as they go. They create a list of history topics and themes that are important to the story. Students add these as sub-headings to the...
Curated OER
The Museum Idea
Students evaluate and record the various types of museum careers. In this The Museum Idea lesson, students create a bicentennial time capsule, design a Museum of me, and make a classroom mini museum. In addition students visit a local...
Curated OER
Life in Ancient Mesopotamia
Students reconstruct and make drawings of vessels in the same manner as an archaeologist. In this archaeologist lesson plan, students each get a piece of a broken pot and they have to work together to put it back together. Once it is...
Curated OER
Celebrating Modernism at the A Century of Progress World's Fair
Students examine aesthetic movement known as modernism, discover why organizers chose modernism as World Fair's design pattern, interpret photographs of modernist fair buildings and identify artifacts that reflect modernist ideas, and...
Curated OER
Scrapbook
Learners read a book and use the internet to find images to accompany it. After choosing one of the artifacts, they complete a full analysis worksheet and write a journal entry about how the artifact was used. To end the lesson plan,...
Curated OER
Underwater Excavation
Students calculate artifact size and ship capacity based on the excavation of an ancient Roman shipwreck.
Curated OER
African American Life in the Nineteenth Century
Students read about the life and work of John and Mary Jones. Using primary source documents, they draw conclusions about their role in the abolistionist movement. They also examine artifacts from their lives and analyze their portrait...
Curated OER
Traveler's in Time
Students analyze artifacts to become familiar with the Great Migration. In this migration instructional activity, students read an article and answer comprehension questions. Students role play a migration scenario using an artifact to...
Art Institute of Chicago
African Myths and Stories
Young historians discover African stories associated with a royal altar tusk from the Kingdom of Benin in Nigeria, read myths illustrated on the tusk, and write a story about the life of an oba using figures depicted on the tusk.
Curated OER
The Golden Spike
Students investigate modern transportation in the 19th century by examining artifacts. In this U.S. history lesson, students read the story Joseph's Railroad Dreams, and discuss the Golden Spike used in the first transcontinental...
Curated OER
Tall Tales: Reconstructing A Personal Tell
Sixth graders discover the ways archaeologists examine artifacts and where they are found. After being introduced to new vocabulary, they use artifacts from their own lives and discover what could be told about their life from them. ...
Curated OER
Meet Hannah the Weaver
Students analyze primary and secondary sources to explore slavery and emancipation, and write letter or diary entry from point of view of slave Hannah Harris or plantation owner Robert Carter. Students then dramatize their creative...
University of Chicago
Ancient Egyptians and Death
What archaeological evidence remains of ancient Egyptian burial and mortuary practices, and what can this information tell us about ancient Egyptian society?
Curated OER
John and Mary Jones and the Importance of Oral History
Students examine the role of John and Mary Jones in the abolitionist movement. Using primary source documents, they discover the importance of an oral history and take notes on the Jones' role. They write a summary of the data to...