‘Artefacts Pursuit’
Learning Outcomes:
To use an artefact or
photograph from the 1950s and
1960s to generate questions
about life in the past.
To use a range of question
words to ask rich and searching
questions
Resources:
Dress
Photo of high rise flats
1950s tea plate
Coronation Mug and and Princesses book
Pictures of Yuri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong, in space
Photograph of demolished street with high rise block
of flats in background
Suitcase
Photograph album
Wild cards with research questions
Laminated prompts with question words
Large laminated counters
3 x 3 board game marked on floor with masking tape
Prior Learning:
Children have had some experience in authenticating artefacts from the 1950s and 60s.
Children understand the terms primary and secondary sources of evidence.
Whole Class Work
What is an artefact?
Is an artefact a piece of primary or secondary evidence?
Take artefacts from the suitcase and place on board. Model asking questions as we pick them out.
Explain to children that they are going to play a board game today, which will help them to use
artefacts to ask some research questions about the past. They will then go on to research these
questions.
Explain to class – collaborative skills – roles of scribe and time keeper (organisation skills and
collaborative skills)
Children work in groups of five and each group has at their table:
A laminated counter in a different colour
A laminated list of question words: Who, When, Where, Why, How,
A large sheet of paper in the same colour as their counter
Have to go to four squares on the board in half an hour.
Group Work
Children throw their die and go to the board to select the artefact that has shown up on die. Take
the artefact to their table and look at it briefly. Use their question cards to write a list of questions:
Questions about the artefact itself and wider questions about life in the 1950s and 1960s.
Eg What sort of person would wear a dress like this?
Where did young people go to enjoy themselves in the 1950s?
Four squares on the board are labelled with a 6. Go to square, open an envelope with wild card.
On each card, is a research task, with a designated place to go to in classroom, where they will find a
source of evidence and a question to answer.
Plenary
Feedback on Wild Card tasks.
‘Artefacts Pursuit’
By Nicola Levison of Hotwells Primary School