archaeological dig items?

[Doubleblessings]

For those who have done the archaeological dig from SOTW 1, what items did you put in the box?

[mommy4ever]

:bigear:

 

I had wanted to do this last spring, and didn't get to it. Thought when we do a review of it, since we aren't that far into SOTW we'd do this.

[OleanderRain]

We haven't done this yet, so I'm hoping to hear others suggestions.

 

I was going to add:

matchbox car (maybe another toy or two)

dishes or eating utensils

measuring cups/spoons

tools (screw driver, hammer, etc.)

coins

[Guest TheBugsMom]

We are doing it this week. My dd is so excited. I took our garden bed, which is boxed in (3x3'), and we marked off grid using twine. We made a sign that says "DIG SITE". This evening I am going to place the items in it (it is being kept a secret from her)

The items are:

Broken mug (not the glazed kind with writing, but a plain black one that has a pottery look)

Large darning needle (this is plastic but white, to look like a bone needle)

Some chicken bones (I keep these for science bone study, but will work great in the dig)

A few marbles (ancient toys idea)

And arrow head

 

We already made a graph paper drawing of the site so all she has to do is mark where the finds are.

 

I am going to let her glue the mug back together so she can see the completed artifact she has found.

[mommy4ever]

We are doing it this week. My dd is so excited. I took our garden bed, which is boxed in (3x3'), and we marked off grid using twine. We made a sign that says "DIG SITE". This evening I am going to place the items in it (it is being kept a secret from her)

The items are:

Broken mug (not the glazed kind with writing, but a plain black one that has a pottery look)

Large darning needle (this is plastic but white, to look like a bone needle)

Some chicken bones (I keep these for science bone study, but will work great in the dig)

A few marbles (ancient toys idea)

And arrow head

 

We already made a graph paper drawing of the site so all she has to do is mark where the finds are.

 

I am going to let her glue the mug back together so she can see the completed artifact she has found.

 

GRREATTT!!!! Love it.

[lakerks]

Pottery - I took a small terra cotta flower pot and broke it into several pieces. If memory serves, I may have drawn some sort of design on it first w/ a black Sharpie marker to make it easier to match up the pieces once "discovered."

 

Toy coin

 

Old jewelry

 

Can't remember the rest - it was 8 yrs ago. Maybe a bone or something that could have been used as some sort of tool.

[Cranberry]

I made our dig as if my son was finding things that represented our current life.

 

I used some of the kids utensils and plates.

styrofoam cup

toy car

an electric hand mixer that had broken

a coin

a dead battery

can't remember the other items, probably some silly happy meal toy or something

 

I had him try to imagine what an archeologist would be able to figure out about us by those items.

[Guest TheBugsMom]

I made our dig as if my son was finding things that represented our current life.

 

I used some of the kids utensils and plates.

styrofoam cup

toy car

an electric hand mixer that had broken

a coin

a dead battery

can't remember the other items, probably some silly happy meal toy or something

 

I had him try to imagine what an archeologist would be able to figure out about us by those items.

I debated whether to do the dig with now-a-day things or ancient objects. Both had sound reasons. Your list for the present items is great (I wrote them down in case we do another dig). Actually this would be a great way for older kids to do the dig...think what would represent our culture to future archeologists and how they would interpret them. Do that along with them reading the book about the Hotel that future archeologists find and how they interpret what they dig up (I cannot remember the name right now).

 

I did decid to go with the ancient items just because we are about to study ancients and the book Archeologist Dig for Clues has ancient artifacts. Figured it would help add more cement.

[Satori]

Here's our Archaeology Dig list, I tried to find things that would tell us what sort of civilization they were. They were pretty advanced, hehe.

 

• corn (plastic) - knew how to farm
  
• gold coin - used currency
  
• pencil - could write
  
• screwdriver - advanced tool
  
• battery - knew how to store electricity
  
• ring, earring, brush
  

 

[Crazyderiver]

I did this activity last week with my ds 6 and dd 4. I used our sandbox, large paint brushes, shovels, sifters from the kitchen, containers to categorize the objects, water to clean atricles, and notebooks for observations and illustrations. I broke an old necklace made from different sized polished stones (not precious, actually rock looking stones). I hid the necklace pieces the night before the dig. The beads were varying sizes 2 inches to grain size. We talked about the dig site and used a library book to help us visualize what were going to do. We collected out the stones, categorized them by size, drew pictures of what we thought it could be, and then they each told me a short story about how they thought the necklace could have gotten in the sandbox. We finished the dig by trying to put the necklace back together. I had taken a picture of the original necklace and we compared our work to the original. It was our first homeschooling project ever, we just started this journey last week, and we loved it!

[Plink]

We did ours as part of DD's birthday party. Her favorite finds were chocolate coins and a broken "tablet" (made from plaster of paris) that she had to assemble to read. You can see all the details here.

[OleanderRain]

I made our dig as if my son was finding things that represented our current life.

 

 

 

 

This is what we plan on doing as well!

 

 

• battery - knew how to store electricity

 

 

 

 

This is a great idea, I didn't think of!

[FairProspects]

We did this just last week, although I had a different take on it. My boys are really into science, and since we are just starting, I really wanted to emphasize the idea that history is something that happened long ago. Like Bugs Mom, I wanted to get across the idea of archeology and what archeologists might find.

 

We buried Dinosaur skulls and Ancient Fossils, along with the Prehistoric toob.

 

Dinosaur skulls

Ancient Fossils

Prehistoric toob

 

The boys had a blast digging up the skulls, fossils, and prehistoric animals along with their friends and then looking them up to find out what they were. It was a big hit at our house!!

[nono]

Heh! Ours,so far, is all old computer parts! A key from a keyboard, a dead SD card. Our site is small, so these work well! Don't know the reaction yet, as it's happening in a few weeks.

 

So neat to read everyone's ideas!!!

[Hockey Mom]

We'll be doing this activity next week. I planned on using items that are considered 'artifacts' from our local region, so most of the items they will find will have ties to the Native American tribes from this area. Unfortunately, my goals were higher than what I've been able to find locally, so our list looks like this:

 

- Plastic Indian. I'm going to use the weapons that came with him.

 

- Some clearance charms that I found at Michaels. One resembles an arrowhead (if you really use your imagination), one has a 'tribal-type' of drawing on it, and I can't remember what the third one is...I just know it matches because they came as a set. :p

 

- Some shells (we do live in Florida)

 

- A small owl made out of a pinecone that I picked up from Michaels. I'm going to try and convince my boys that this was ancient Native American art.

 

- Some plastic lizards. My intent is to place them in plaster of paris and have just the fossil, but we'll see if I have time to make that happen.

 

- Some plastic coins that will represent Spain's presence here.

 

- Some glass rocks, that will represent European trade.

 

And I think that's going to be it. I really liked the idea of breaking up pottery of some sort and having them piece it back together, but I don't know if I'll do that one or not.