It worked for me: key stage 2 cameos

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Under the sand: an exciting way of using artefacts in the classroom

‘Handling real artefacts can bring the “awe and wonder” into learning about history. The ground is well covered, especially by English Heritage’s Learning from Objects, which offers a good range of activities and examples of questions to ask,’ comments Julie Tzivanidou of Cove Junior School in Hampshire.

Roman villa artefacts

Using a Roman villa artefacts box from the Hampshire History Centre, a sand tray and some wire, Julie constructed an archaeological dig for use in her classroom. She made a wire grid to divide the tray into nine numbered segments. Next she buried the artefacts in the sand noting their location so that she could direct some of the children to them and to ensure that they would all be found.

Julie told the children that a site containing some Roman artefacts had been found locally and it was believed that this might be part of a Roman villa. The children were going to take the role of archaeologists and excavate the site for Roman remains. Their task was to use their finds to try to confirm that a Roman villa had once stood on the site. They talked a little about the work of archaeologists and how they painstakingly piece together evidence to reconstruct the past.

Digging up the past

In pairs the children excavated a section of the sand tray using large, flat, paintbrushes and small scoops. When they found an artefact they noted its location on a grid sheet and drew a picture of the artefact, as they had found it, on the sheet.

They carefully studied their artefact and tried to answer questions such as:

What is it made of?
Was it manufactured or natural?
Is it whole or a part of something?
What colour is it?
What was it used for?

Having studied the object the children then drew their artefact in greater detail for a display label along with a description of it.

Follow-up

When all the children had done this they grouped together to discuss the objects they had found and what they thought they were. Various ideas were put forward as to the significance of the objects.

Next Julie handed out the investigation sheets for each object. The children independently researched their artefacts and the questions raised, from a selection of books and pre-selected websites.

After a period of time the class came back together and the children fed back to the rest of the class on what they had discovered about their object. They had to say whether, in their opinion, the artefact was consistent with finds from a Roman villa and why they thought so.

Finally the children were asked to make a museum display at the back of the class with accurate labels describing and explaining the significance of each object. Other classes in the school were invited to come and see their work.