Today's artifact is a bit of a stretch but I got the "E" in Epitaphs on tombstones. I know that epitaphs alone aren't artifacts but walking around older cemeteries and reading the epitaphs on the tombstones date back to the 1600's is pretty interesting. There's a life's story in just a few words - pretty impressive. Hmmm, I'm wondering what mine would say? Summing up one's life in a few sentences takes some practice. Wouldn't it be cool to either begin or end a story with our character's epitaph. I'm not sure if I've ever heard anyone tell a story beginning or ending with a summary of a person's life. I think this would be effective if my students were to storytell an event in a historical character's life, like Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Marie Curie, or Helen Keller and personalize it with an epitaph in poetry form depicting the character traits of that person.
I took all three of these pictures while on vacation in Boston.
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A fun writing activity would be to write poetry epitaphs for historical people studied in history and science. The students could work in groups, research the historical figure, agree on this person's character traits and create an epitaph - funny or serious.
I've included some fun websites that give us insight into funny epitaphs and further writing activities:
How to Write a Funny Epitaph
Grave Humor
Famous Epitaphs
I've included some fun websites that give us insight into funny epitaphs and further writing activities:
How to Write a Funny Epitaph
Grave Humor
Famous Epitaphs
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