By Angela Howard
Excavating and analyzing artifacts and trying to discover items in the sand has been the routine in Mrs. Nelson’s GT class lately. They have been “digging” and discovering relics hidden in the sand. Usually, when they find items, they consisted of relics from a building or a specific room. They have dug up thread, buttons, cloths, paint brushes, and more. Students said that each member of their archeological team had a specific job to do and described them in the following manner:
- Excavator – It was this person’s job to actually do the digging in the sand with the tools. They got to be the first to discover the relics or fossils.
- Museum Creator – It was this person’s job to take the object out of the sandpit, clean it off properly, and place a flag showing where it was discovered.
- Map Maker – It was this person’s job to make sketches of what the item looked like on a grid marking the location where the item was discovered.
Every student had a log with information about their digs.
Digging for a Special Reveal
Mrs. Nelson found out in October that she was expecting twins. Ever since then, the students have been asking daily if the babies are boys or girls and what Mrs. Nelson would name them. Mrs. Nelson got a surprise in January (on her husband’s birthday) when she found out that she is really expecting triplets rather than twins. So now the students are even more curious about genders and names. She decided to create a gender and name reveal for the students through an archeological dig.
She had written the letters in each baby’s first and middle names on puzzle pieces. She hid the puzzle pieces in each of the three sandpits with each pit containing the name of one baby. Students had to use all their archeological skills to excavate, discover, and map each of the puzzle pieces. When they had found all the pieces in their group’s pit, they had to put the puzzle pieces together to spell out the babies’ names. They discovered there are two girls and one boy:
Amelia Kay
Adeline Marie
Oliver Morris
Mrs. Nelson commented on how engaging this activity was and how they used their newly acquired archeology skills to learn the babies’ genders and names. Students were thrilled to finally learn the gender and names and were even more excited to learn it through archeology.