Meet the Teachers Using Historical Thinking Skills: The Backpack

This is the perfect start to the school year lesson! Students are assigned the role of historical detectives to figure out what the contents of a backpack reveal about the owner. Little do they know, each backpack belongs to one of their teachers! When the secret is revealed, students are astonished by all they have learned about their teachers!

This lesson sets up the vocabulary students will need to use all year as historical thinkers. It's a great intro lesson to these skills while also introducing them to their teachers. You can do this with one or up to 5 teachers! I have my colleagues actually put contents about them into a real backpack and have the students search through them- it makes it more fun and authentic! You can also use brown paper bags. Some of the contents we have used include a sewing kit, a guitar pick, a tea bag, a dog collar, a postcard, etc. Anything that can reveal more information about you or your colleagues but can also throw the students off track (it makes the big reveal more fun!)

This lesson includes:

• Google slides presentation to introduce the activity and vocabulary.
• Worksheet for students to complete while analyzing the backpacks.
• A homework worksheet where students create their own backpack filled with contents about themselves (a great extension lesson to get to know your students)

The Google slides are editable and include 5 slides to include more details about each backpack.

My 7th graders love this activity as do my other team members who get a chance to learn more about our students in the first few days of the school year.