Treasure Box

 After much debate, I based my treasure box on the life of George Washington and the era in which he lived.  I read aloud the book George/George Washington, Our Founding Father, by George Keating. I found my inspiration for items in the box from the book , the Library of Congress website, The National Archives website, and the information that we got in our class this summer. The items were geared to students in a fifth grade classroom.

After reading the book to the class, I divided the class into teams. Each team had one bag that came out of the box with items for them to examine and answer questions that were related to the items they explored.  The hands-on approach allowed the students to learn using a brain-based approach.

Activity 1: Colonial Clothing: Students looked at photos of people dressed in colonial attire. They then were allowed to examine various items that they saw in the photos such as a wig, leggings, colonial fabrics (in the book that we were given this summer), colonial buttons, and other items. The students also looked at a picture of the colonial three corner hat, and were given directions to make one of their own by folding newspaper to make a hat similar to the ones worn in colonial times.

Activity 2: George Washington timeline:
Students were allowed to read over a  timeline of major events in the life of George Washington. Then they were given a stack of pictures that were taken from the National Archives website and were asked to match the photos to various events in George's lifetime. The photos were labeled with the correct answer  on the back, and students had to answer a series of questions about what they saw in the photos.

Activity 3:  Colonial Jobs :Students were given a list of colonial jobs that were mentioned in the book about George Washington (surveyor, blacksmith, cooper), as well as other colonial time jobs. Students were shown a picture of an object and had to match it to the "job title" that went with it.

Activity 4:  Calligraphy Writing Students were given a copy of the Constitution and were asked to find George Washington's signature, as well as those of other famous men. They were then asked to
attempt to write their name with a quill (feather) dipped in ink. After a few minutes, the students were given black felt tip pens and models of upper and lower case letters written in a calligraphy alphabet. Students were allowed to write their names on parchment paper .

Activity 5: Colonial Objects: At this station, students were allowed to explore some of the other objects that we were given at our summer institute, such as the block of tea, spices in their original form, and the bilbo catcher. Students were then asked to answer a series of reflective questions about some of the items (How would you feel about having toys that did not run on batteries? Why do you think that tea and spices were valued by the colonists?   etc....)


I also gave the class a pre and post assessment about George Washington. Students later made a foldable in their student notebook based on the activity. The students really enjoyed this activity.

My thoughts about this is that it was fun for the students, but was a tremendous amount of work. I like the idea, but found it very difficult to complete.  I am happy that it is now finished, because I can use it again and again. I think I could focus on one topic at a time and make more each year (I would love to do one based on Ben Franklin and one on the Pilgrims).

I read Signing Their Rights Away by Denise Kierman. What a fascinating book! I liked that you could focus on the signers by states.  Of course, I first focused on George.  I laughed when I learned that he "loved good times, drinking, gambling, cockfights, dancing, and salty jokes" (who knew???)! His infamous false teeth were made of crazy stuff like hippo, walrus, and elephant ivory, but never fit very well . It does explain why he never smiled in pictures!