Nika Younesi

Social Studies Methods:

Kindergarten Historical Thinking Activity

Artifact Exploration, Inference, and Comparison: Lantern v.s. Lamp

Rational:​ This activity will engage students in exploring evidence and the concept of continuity
and change to encourage historical thinking. Children need to understand that history is the way
we may sense of the past based on many different kinds of evidence. Understanding change over
time is central to historical thinking, as is recognizing the constants that continue through time.
Students will engage in a discussion concerning an artifact from the past, a old lantern. Questions
will prompt students to infer what the artifact is, how old it is, and what it was used for. Students
will discuss the similarities and differences between the old lantern from the past and a lamp
from present day. Students will engage in a discussion concerning some things that have stayed
the same since the student's grandparents or parents were children, and things that have changed.

Learning Intentions: ​I can access information from a visual source. I can contribute to class
collection of information on a common topic. I can speculate what an artifact might be, how old
is might be, and how it might have been used. I can make comparisons between families in the
past and families in the present.

Curricular Connections:
Competency:
● Use Social Studies inquiry processes and skills to ask questions; gather, interpret, and
analyze ideas; and communicate findings and decisions

● Ask questions, make inferences, and draw conclusions about the content and features of
different types of sources (evidence)

● Sequence objects, images, or events, and distinguish between what has changed and what
has stayed the same (continuity and change)
Content:
● Ways in which individuals and families differ and are the same: comparison of families
in the past and present (e.g., families in your grandparents’ time compared with
present-day families)

Activity:
Form a circle with students seated on the floor. Present lantern to the students. Prompt a group
discussion with the following questions:
What do you think it is? What can you guess? Why?
Is it new, or is it old? How do you know?
What would you like to know?
How might it have been used? Who do you think used it?
What do you know for certain about it?

Explain to the students what the lantern is - Is there anything that has replaced this object today?

Present new modern lamp to students - How is it different? How is it the same? (diagram).

Discussion: ​This old lantern, this old source of light can be used as a piece of evidence to help us
understand more about the past, maybe more about a time when your mothers and fathers were
your age, or when your grandparents were your parents age. Our use and dependence on light has
stayed the same over the many years that have passed, but the type of light we now use is
different, the light source has changed. Some things, like this lantern that gives light, change
over time for people’s benefit. We now more commonly use electric lamps so that we can have
brighter light and readily access to it. However, our continual need for light, to light up our
homes, our schools, and the stores, etc. has stayed the same.

Extension: ​Provide students with printed pictures of different sources of light from the past and
the present (one to three explicitly different images). Have students place pictures in
chronological sequence, and explain their reasoning. Can be a group activity, partner work, or
individual.

Assessment: ​Observation checklist for discussions and mini conferences.