Relics & Artifacts Impacting Classroom ExperienceS

 

The look on their stunned faces was all the proof I needed.  As Debbie unveiled the silver artifact, jaws dropped; my 5th Grade Gifted Education Class had become engaged in learning.

 

The week before had been spent preparing for this major event.  The kids had already taken on several roles that would aid in their new adventure.  Unknowingly my students had become well-versed on examing imagry and extracting meaningful information about the culture responsible for such works of art.

 

 

On this particular day my students were to become the curators, the historians, the anthropologists.  It was up to them to draw meaning and significance from the imagry casted into ten silver pieces by the peoples of Colonial Mexico. 

 

 

 The Artifacts

 

 

Thoughts by Students @ Tabasco Elementary

 

Armed with an experienced eye, and a knowledge-base about the images they were to encounter, students at Tabasco Elementary were asked to examine several Relics and Artifacts from Colonial Mexico and provide preliminary information for further studies. 

 

The Copón and The Mancerina

 

The Plate and The Basket

 

The Benditero and The Brasero

 

The Limosnero and The Tray

 

The Offering Plate and The Candlesticks

 

 

 

 

Our RAICES

 

Pre Lesson Activities

 

Students worked with various types of imagry to experience, first-hand, how meaningful history can be extracted from the images of the past.

 

Students first examined the images found in popular, current news magazines and determined what future historians might say about our present day culture based on the images we publish.  The students agreed that our culture is facinated by war, global warming, technology, and food.  What do these themes running through our news magazines say about out culture?

 

The students then examine secondary source pictures of ancient cultures and used clues within the drawings to determine the originating culture and time period represented.

 

Lastly, in preperations for their day as museum curator, the students worked to decipher the meaning behind images that appear with high frequency in Christianity.

 

Sacred Images

 

 

 

In the Media

 

"Fifth-graders in the gifted and talented programs at five elementary schools will learn about Ricardo and Debbie Backal’s 15th to 19th century Mexican silver collection, housed at the International Museum of Art & Science in McAllen."  

 

 

 

 

 

Sketches

 

Our Message for the Future