Mrs. Mitchell's Fifth Grade Classroom

When the trunk first arrived in our classroom my students were interested in what was inside. I knew I would not have time to open the trunk, so I told them they would have to wait until tomorrow. By the next day the children were anxious and asking all day, "What's in that box?" They knew it had something to do with Truman since his name was stamped on top, but could guess little else. Due to time constraints we were deterred yet again the following day. By the third day, they were making plans to get me out of the room so they could look. What a great anticipatory set without even planning!

By the time we finally opened the trunk, they were ecstatic. I warned them some of the things inside were very old and to be very careful. I then gave them time to just look through the trunk, exploring, trying on, testing things out, and then came the questions. "What is this?" "What does this have to do with Harry S. Truman?" With the questions posed, off we went to begin our research.

The children paired up and chose an item from the trunk they would like to find out more about. Having little experience with research, note taking, etc., the social studies lesson quickly turned to a language arts lesson. After some frustration, we finally finished our project. We hope you enjoy it!