Fifth grade had a chance to explore Civil War artifacts with the rental of a Civil War trunk. I rented the trunk through the Northeast Georgia Museum. They rent the trunks to school for only $25 a week. The trunk came with wonderful primary resources for the students to explore. I decided to divide the items among five tables for the students to explore, discuss, and write their observations.

The five tables were: money, Harper's Weekly newspaper, Civil War clothing, haversack bag and contents, and an ammunition bag with a picture of its contents.

Students were given a sheet and card with discussion questions. I modeled how to examine the artifacts with the canteen for the students. The students would have the same questions on their sheet and discussion cards for each table. They were also instructed not to fill in the response section of the paper since we would discuss the artifacts as a group and what the artifact really was. I also set a 5 minute timer for each table so that the students would have time to go to all 5 tables, but also to keep them focused.

The students loved examining the artifacts. We spoke about how colorful the newspaper was, how itchy the clothing felt, and how heavy the shoe was. They also loved seeing real hardtack, the tooth brush, soap, and the bowl and utensils the soldiers used. They were also most surprised that the black bag was for ammunition and not for medicine or letter writing. 

The students learned so much by seeing the items soldiers and others used during the Civil War. This was my 3rd year reserving a Civil War trunk and based on the learning and excitement of the students I will rent another one next year.

Third graders study Georgia Animals. Since I would see the students for 4 days over their specials rotation I decided a research and technology project would fit into our schedule. 

On the first day students selected a Georgia Animal from a list of 22 that I was able to find videos about (I'll explain why that's important later). They then used Encyclopedia Britannica, PowerKids Science, or Pebble Go Animals to find information about their animals appearance, habitat and diet. They also listed 3 additional interesting facts about their animal. Students did a great job locating their information. 

The next step was for students to select the poster template they wanted to use. I made three choices for them, a wanted poster, a riddle, and a magazine cover. I like making the templates because it allows students to focus on getting their information into their project first and then playing around with text size, color, etc.  They spent the next two days typing their information from their research sheet and adding a picture of their animal. Ahead of time I used Britannica Image Quest and downloaded at least 8 pictures of each animal for students to choose from. The pictures were saved in their teacher's shared drive folder so that the students could easily access them when needed.

The final day was adding the QR codes to the posters. This is why I had to find videos ahead of time for the animals. Each animal had 2 videos that were either linked directly to a child friendly site such as Discover Kids, or downloaded and then uploaded unto my webpage if it was on Youtube. For this step I wish I could have just used SafeShare but my district blocked the site a year ago.

Students were given time to view the two videos so they could select which one they wanted to use in their video. After viewing the video students followed along with me as I showed them how to copy and paste the link into a QR code generator. Shorten the URL to one that was easier to scan. Save, name, and download their QR code. Finally, insert the QR code into the poster. Students did a wonderful job following directions and helping each other.

After the class left I printed the projects for the teacher to hang outside their classroom. I will also upload the projects later to the teacher's website.