Artifacts

Everyone's high point of today was the family artifact assignment I assigned the class earlier this week.  Their task was to talk to their parents and figure out the oldest "artifact" that is owned by their family, something that's been passed down through the family.  At first they had trouble understanding the assignment; once I showed them my object, they seemed to understand better.  I brought in an old hand-painted Japanese silk fan my grandma Golisch gave me when I was little (3rd grade?).  My students were very impressed.  And since I shared that artifact early, I brought in my coin collection today, specifically to show the wheat penny my dad gave me when I was little.  They had fun looking at my other coins.  One coin really got them going: a "silver" Olympic coin.  They all laughed when I told them I'd found it in a cereal box when I was maybe a 1st grader and thought it was real.  Still, they agreed it did look pretty cool.


Some other artifacts that were brought were an old German bible passed down from a great-great-great-Grandpa (who had been hit on the head by a rifle and lost his memory for a few months... the guy who hit him stole his dog tags too!), a linen baby book given to a great-great grandma when she was a baby, a watch and dog tag from a WWII medic who made artificial limbs for amputee soldiers (grandpa of a stepdad of one of my students), a braided hair penny from 1853 (100% copper), 90% silver half-dollars and 40% half-dollars from a grandma who earned them as tips working at the Cat and Fiddle, a pocket watch, really old wire glasses (the kind that hook around your ears... the 5th and 6th graders had a blast trying them on), a gold locket, and an old film projector that still works!  A good number of them had notes jotted down to remind them what to say.  Only a few struggled with talking about their object.  All in all, a grand success!