What's a great way to get students really involved and interested in a lesson? Connect them to it personally! For the shoebox activity I am about to describe, we were posed the question, "If you were put into a situation where you could only take personal items that fit into a shoebox, what would you choose?"
Ground rules for this activity were set:
- All family members (including pets) are considered safe and will be leaving along side of you.
- Anything extremely vaulable (such asmoney) and irreplaceable items (for example a family heirloom) can be represented by a different object.
- Food, clothing, and other necessary matierals will already be taken care of.
- It shoebox must be a regular sized shoebox- no Boot Boxes!
So what would you bring? This is what our class brought:
This lesson not only helps to build community in the classroom but it helps them to see what their peers value. The classroom community is build, supported, and strengthened in this lesson because children can find connections between themselves and their peers. "Oh! Johnny thought his all time favorite baseball card was important too!" or "Jackie brought a picture of her family- I didn't even think of that. I would definitely bring a picture of my family."
Furthermore this lesson shows that artifacts can tell a lot about people. This activity can be the introduction to any history lesson. By looking at artifacts brought in, students can see that a information about a person or group of people can be preserved. Furthermore, as we found out in my class (surprised that no one brought anything technological) a lot of important information does not make it's way to becoming an artifact and can be lost.
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