Artifact Bag Presentation

Links to mine and my colleagues' presentations! 

• My Presentation
• Lexi Presentation
• Michaela Presentation
• Kim Presentation
• Kristen Presentation
• Cassandra Presentation
• Amanda Presentation
• Ganny Presentation
• Marie Presentation
• Cierra Presentation
• Aimee Presentation
• Angelina Presentation 

Today for our class we created our own artifact bags based on the topics that we taught to the students in our fieldwork.  The links mine and the rest of my colleagues' presentations can be found above.  We each picked three or four artifacts that had something to do with our topic and put them in a mystery bag.  We then designed presentations which we presented to our peers in the next class.  We also found websites and children's books that could be used for this activity to give students more information on the topic.

My topic that I taught on was Christopher Columbus so I included different artifacts that had to do with Columbus.  My first artifact was an Italian and Spanish flag.  Columbus was of Italian descent but in order to take his voyages he needed the money from Spain.  The flag is a representation of the two countries.  My next artifact was an image of the Santa Maria ship.  This ship was the largest of Columbus' three ships.  My last artifact was corn, this was a representation of the Columbian Exchange.  During the Columbian Exchange, Columbus transported all different kinds of goods including corn.  The main objective of the artifact bag activity was to have the other group members guess what was in the bag and why all of the objects were in the bag together.  All of these objects were in the bag together because they had to do with Christopher Columbus. 

The artifact bag activity can be used when introducing a new unit or topic, or to give students a more hands-on experience.  Using an artifact bag in the classroom is also a great way to get students to make inferences about a certain topic that they are learning about or they are going to be learning about.  It is a really great activity to use to get students excited about what they are going to be learning.  Students can even create their own artifact bag about themselves!