Our current unit of inquiry is called ‘History through artefacts.’  We are investigating how objects have changed over time and how this impacts our lives.

Today, we travelled by bus to an old pioneer village called Old Tailem Town to look how people lived in the past (olden days). We walked all around the village and looked closely at the houses, rooms, tools, old vehicles like cars, trucks, farm machinery, carts and all of the different businesses you have in a pioneer town, like a bakery, church, town hall, old cinema, car garage, dentist, hospital, news agents, train station, green grocers, butcher and many many more!

We got a really good understanding of how people lived in the “olden days” and how tough their lives were compared to ours now. It was very interesting to see all of the different objects and materials they used or owned. We’re looking forward to using our new understandings back at school for different activities.

A highlight of the day was our ‘school lesson’ with Mr Squires. Our classes had to line up in 2 lines for an outside assembly. Then we were inspected by teachers to make sure the laces were tied on our shoes and our hands were clean. We sang God Save the Queen and then marched into the classroom. We sat at our old school desks as Mr Squires explained how school worked in the past – with ink wells, the cane, special school bags or satchels, slates to write on and Primmers to read.

We’d like to say a big ‘thank you’ to our parent helpers – Julie, Tracy and Chelsea. It was great to have you helping us during the day.

Well done to the people who dressed up to fit in with our ‘olden days’ topic – you all looked great.