Digging up the Past
Social – connecting the past with the present
Day 1: Read: Something From Nothing – Talk about the
blanket and why Joseph wanted the grandfather to keep
making things out of it.
1. Why did the jacket not fit Joseph.
2. Examine the pictures of the family and how the family
changes over the course of the book
Day 2 : Discuss the meaning of past, present and future.
i. Talk about how their “past” is when they were
babies.
ii. Is there anything special that they have kept
from when they were babies because they
really liked it or they wanted to remember that
time in their lives.
iii. Make a note for agendas to bring something
from their past to show in class. Ex. Blanket, toy,
stuffy, picture.
Day 3: Look at pictures and books showing pics of people in
the past – long long ago and discuss what things they see that
are different than what we have today. How do we know
about these items? What houses looked like, how people
dressed, methods of transportation etc.
 Pictures,
 books,
 grandparents,
 movies
 internet
Day 4: Role play – Explain that I am an archaeologist. What is
an archaeologist?? Tell them that a museum contacted me
and they want me to identify some items that they found. I
need assistance to do this and would they like to be my
archaeology assistants?
***Setting criteria: What does an archaeologist do?
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Be careful when handling the object
examine carefully,
ask questions,
record information
When working with other group members what should we
do?
 Take turns,
 listen
 be respectful to others
What kinds of questions do we need answered when we are
trying to discover what something is?
What is it?
What do you think it was used for?
Why do you think it was used for that?
What do we have today that looks similar to what this object is?
How are we going to present our ideas??
 drawings
 sentences
 words
Day 5/6 - Bring in artefacts and split them into 3 or 4 groups to
discover and answer their questions about what these objects
may be. Record any data – drawings, sentences, words
Present each artefact to the large group and ask them
what they think it is. Each group present their findings.
Day 7/8 – How do we find out if we were right with our findings?
(See if kids come up with looking on the computer)
Use smart board together to look up the artefacts to see if
we were correct.
Assessment: Use our criteria we developed together on how
to be a good archaeologist and how to work well in a group to
self evaluate.
****Create a rubric using the burgers for each point we made
when we set our criteria.
Ex. I was very careful when I held and touched the artefact.
I listened to others ideas.
I gave my ideas when working with my group.
Etc.
Evaluate our group questions. Did our questions help us?
Use a clipboard or dictionaries as a shield to do self assessment.