Encourage students to look for artifacts at home. Study the photographs and artifacts and ask students about their possible origins and meanings. Some artifacts found in Canada tell us much about our country. Guide students to realize that artifacts often include things used every day. Many years later, they provide an historical record.
Researchers use artifacts as clues for studying peoples of the past and present.
Have students make a list or select several articles that would give archaeologists, many years from now, some clues to the way we live. For other activity ideas, see the Grade 5 Arts Education curriculum, pages 329-339. Learn about different ways Canadian history has been interpreted. Have the students move their desks so that they are facing a variety of directions. Ask them to describe the classroom on the asis of what they can see.