In the Lower School Humanities unit Journeys, fourth graders recently took on a new identity: artifact investigators.

Armed with curiosity and close observation skills, students were presented with antique objects or, “artifacts,” and were challenged to uncover their stories. Each object prompted a series of guiding questions: What is this object? What is it made of? Does it contain writing, dates, or visual clues? Who might have used it? What can we infer about a person or a time period from this item alone?

The classroom quickly transformed into a research lab as students carefully examined tiny bottles and containers, pieces of fabric, photographs and postcards, books, and various do-dads and thingamajigs. They sketched, recorded observations, and developed thoughtful hypotheses, using evidence to support their conclusions.

The project deepened learning from the grade’s recent visit to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, where students explored the New York immigrant experience. There, they encountered historic artifacts and discovered how everyday objects serve as primary sources, powerful tools that help historians understand how people in the past lived, worked, and built community.

By analyzing their own classroom artifacts, students experienced firsthand how historians piece together stories from physical evidence. The activity strengthened critical thinking skills while reinforcing a central theme of Journeys: understanding how individual experiences shape broader history.

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