Last updated: August 5, 2021
Lesson Plan
A Penny for Your Thoughts
- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Literacy and Language Arts,Science,Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- Common Core Standards:
- 3.RI.7, 4.RI.1, 4.RI.7
- State Standards:
- OH English, Social Studies, Science Grade level 3-4
ELA -- RI.4.7
SS.HS.3.2
SS.HS.3.3
SS.HS.4.2
Science - Science Inquiry and Application Strand - Grades 3-4 - Thinking Skills:
- Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Applying: Apply an abstract idea in a concrete situation to solve a problem or relate it to a prior experience. Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts. Creating: Bring together parts (elements, compounds) of knowledge to form a whole and build relationships for NEW situations. Evaluating: Make informed judgements about the value of ideas or materials. Use standards and criteria to support opinions and views.
Essential Question
What do artifacts, or the materials that people leave behind, tell us about their beliefs, values, and what they did during their everyday life?
Objective
1. Learn how to develop inferences or educated guess from observations they make.
2. Use inferences to interpret or explain something.
3. Apply their skills of observation and inference to understand how everyday objects represent the culture of a particular group.
4. Recognize limitations to our power of observation and inference.
Background
Artifacts are more than just objects; they provide important information about people of the past. For example, comparing an arrowhead and a spearhead we can observe the differences in size and shape and infer that longer objects probably pierce deeper into muscle. Then we can hypothesize that perhaps arrowheads were mean to hunt smaller animals while spears were for hunting large animals. We can look at the effigy pipes from Hopewell sites and observe that they are all animals and infer that the natural world was very important to their culture and beliefs. During this process of studying artifacts archaeologists are using the scientific method they observe something, use what they know to build inferences and make hypotheses that can then be tested.
We can do the same with the objects we use today like a simple penny. The penny displays a picture of Abraham Lincoln, the phrases “In God We Trust” and “E Pluribus Unum” meaning “One out of Many” So we can infer that our leaders, faith, and unity are important American values. We don’t need to really need to test this with a hypothesis, but we could. What else can we infer from the penny? What about change over time? The old penny just has the amount it is worth and ears of wheat, while the newer one has the Lincoln memorial. Take a look at an old penny and a new penny, what are the differences and what do they say about us?
In this lesson you are putting on your archaeologist hats and making observances and inferences about your own culture.
Below are links about the history and iconography of the Penny
United States Mint: https://www.usmint.gov/learn/kids/library/circulating-coins/penny
United States Treasury: https://www.treasury.gov/about/education/Pages/lincoln-cent.aspx
Spruce Crafts: https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/history-of-the-lincoln-cent-768785
Preparation
- Pen or Pencil for each student or group
- A penny for each student or group
- “A Penny for Your Thoughts” worksheet for each group. See Lesson Materials Tab below.
- Image sheet of old pennies for each student or group (optional)
Materials
Use this chart for students to record observations and inferences about their penny.
Download A Penny for Your Thoughts Worksheet Part 1
Use this section for students to record their hypotheses about their observations and inferences
Download A Penny for Your Thoughts Worksheet Part 2
Procedure
- Distribute pennies to each student or group along with the Penny for your thoughts work sheet.
- Give the students 5-10 minute to study the penny. Have students list their observations in the lines on the first column of the sheet (i.e. Man, Abraham Lincoln, Facial hair, In God We Trust, Lincoln Memorial, Shield, etc.)
- For the next 5-10 minutes, have the students use what they know and what they observed to make inferences about American Culture. For each observation come up with an inference.
- Based on their inferences have them come up with one hypothesis (i.e. Abraham is on the penny because he was one of the most important presidents” ) and decide whether or not this could be tested and how they would find other evidence to support their explanation. Discuss together how you would do this.
- Discuss hypotheses that cannot be tested and observations and inferences that may not be accurate (i.e. Abraham Lincoln was a humble president so he was put on the penny). Explain that we can never know all the information and our interpretations can sometimes be incomplete.
- Stop at step five or continue on with other pennies via the extra sheet and compare and contrast the pennies and how they change overtime.
Vocabulary
Artifact – an object made by human hands.
Inference – an explanation based on the process of observation of facts or evidence.
Observation – the process of looking closely at something in order to gain information or find evidence or facts.