In this challenging time, many parents and guardians are looking online for meaningful activities for their children that don’t require too much prep or too many materials. Throughout this time, the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust will post learning activities geared to a range of ages that guide children how to explore heritage, history, and learning through artifacts.
This activity builds on the skills of making observations and using the observations to draw inferences. Our educational approach is grounded in the idea that every object tells a story, and we encourage students to observe and infer to try to determine what story each object is telling.
View the artifacts here. Have your student first list objective observations (what they can see, without making any guesses or inferences). Encourage them to deepen their observations and include things they may not have noticed upon first viewing the artifact.
Next, ask students to make inferences: what do you think these objects are? Who might they have belonged to? What story are they telling?
Ansjel Liberman, a Polish Jew who emigrated from Warsaw to Paris in 1923, earned a modest income for himself and his family by creating small wooden animals and other crafts. His daughter Marie sold them on the street.
Art activity: Draw or using modeling clay to sculpt your own animal.
We encourage you to share a photo of your student’s work with us! Please email education@mjhnyc.org so that we may feature it on our Museum blog.