Artifacts of the Future

“What would people in the year 2525 learn about us if they went on and archaeological dig and discovered 19 tiny decorated clay pots from our class buried in the schoolyard?” That was the question posed to our class this week as an introduction to what archaeologists and historians can learn about the past.
To begin, each child was given a tiny clay flowerpot to secretly decorate with six symbols which they felt would tell about themselves. Knowing that it would be unlikely for archaeologists to find 19 clay pots over 500 years old in perfect condition, I told them that the pots would actually be broken and reassembled by someone else in our class who would not know the identity of the artist.
Yesterday we took on that challenge and there was a lot of excitement in the room as they carefully reassembled the pots using glue. Each child then worked to identify some of the symbols on the pots and attempted to figure out the actual artist. We will have our final projects on display during Open House next week.