Crash Course on how to use an Artifact Bag

Here are a few things teachers should think about before they start their artifact bag project!

What is an artifact bag?
An artifact bag is a cleverly designed bag with a special unknown item from the past inside. The students job is to look at the object and figure out what it is and where it came from. This project will help students increase their reading comprehension skills and also their interest in history.

Here are 5 tips on how to use an Artifact Bag

1. Get the students excited for the new project they are about to discover! 

2. Use a journal to keep track of everyday you work on the artifact bag. This allows the student to deepen their new learning.

3. Make sure you provide useful books to help the student identify their artifact.

4. If you do end up using books, please be aware of the culture of your students. Mirror books and window books are recommended. It is important to make sure that your students are able to make text to self connections. If they are able to do that then learning will be harder for them.

5. Advocate nonfiction and fiction books with the same historic focus so that students will be gaining expository information along with their narrative text.  This allows the student to become more involved in the topic and makes for great group discussions.