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Grade 5 Social Studies · World 1: Tools of the Trade · Level 6
Reading Artifacts
Ask what an object tells about its time.
Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.
What children learn in Level 6
- An artifact is a thing made or used by people in the past. A coin, a ticket, or a tool can all be clues.
- Start by looking closely. What is it made of? What was it for? Here's an oil lamp from 1870.
- Then ask what it tells you. A lamp that burns oil tells you that homes didn't have electric lights yet.
- Be careful about what it can't tell you. The lamp can't tell you who owned it or how they felt. For that, you need more sources.
- Try it with a grown-up: find the oldest thing in your home, and ask what it tells about its time.
Georgia Standards of Excellence in Social Studies:
- IPS.10 — Information Processing Skill 10: analyze artifacts (mastered in Grade 5)