#MuseumMonday Happy Birthday FDR!

 For several weeks now, we have been starting our morning with an artifact or primary source to analyze together as a class.  I have been following the "See-Think-Wonder" strategy to promote students' observations and interpretations.  I will say that I am really enjoying this morning routine, as I am seeing students that do not normally participate in class discussion engaged in learning.

My kids know that whatever I put up has some sort of connection to our current studies.  In my room, this has many possibilities.  Is it connected to the state we are studying?  Our current social studies unit or a celebrated birthday?

Today, I placed the object above (courtesy of NPS Franklin D. Roosevelt Home) up for discussion as today is Franklin D. Roosevelt's birthday.  My students do really well with the "seeing and thinking".  I love when we get to the "wonder".  I have several students that I love watching think.  One in particular sits and stares at our classroom timeline.  

He is thinking and it makes me happy.  

As our discussion continues, ideas come out.  Was it Harriet Tubman's (we are studying the Civil War)? Could it be Helen Keller's (we learned about her recently while studying Georgia)?  Another student chimes in about the hat.  I left my students to continue to wonder and then showed one of my favorite series of presidential videos by Disney (see clip on the right).  I prefer this clip for my purposes as it has an image of FDR in a wheelchair, which is uncommon.  Once the students saw clip, they immediately knew that it belonged to FDR.  This then opened the door to further conversations about the image that FDR worked very hard to uphold to the public so that he would not appear weak.

I love #MuseumMonday!

Tonight, I came home to look up more on the National Park Service as a museum.  I hadn't given it much thought before I went looking for my daily artifact with the intent of finding FDR's wheelchair. The National Park Service is the guardian to SO many of our nation's treasures.  In their charge, they oversee battlefields, natural treasures and historic sites.  It only makes sense that their collection is immense.  As I continued to explore further, I came across the Museum Collections department of the National Park Service.  Definitely worth my while to continue to explore.  I can predict that pieces will show up in the future on #MuseumMonday.
​

NPS Collection Deparment