St Mary's School came and visited the museum yesterday as part of the activities planned for their camp. Their camp was planned for during winter so that the students could go skiing, but for a rest day during their ski week they thought visiting the museum would be a great idea!

The year 5 and 6 students booked in for a full day primary programme which included:

• An 1800's lesson with the terrifying Miss Grey. Students practiced their handwriting on slate boards and learned how different schools were over a 100 years ago.
• A museum visit which included handling artefacts. Everyone enjoyed handling the pounamu mere, and the moa bone whilst they discovered the multitude of reasons why different groups of people came to the Wakatipu.
• Gold panning! Even though it has been very cold all week, we were able to catch some afternoon sun for the gold panning session where students discovered different panning techniques as well as finding gold!
• A historic walk of Arrowtown, where students heard the story of the great escaped from the Old Gaol as well as visiting Saint Mary MacKillops school house. Visiting historic buildings of Arrowtown helped everyone understand how difficult life during the 1800's could be.
• A tour of the Chinese settlement was the last activity of the day. Exploring the stone huts, and learning about Chinese culture helped these students understand why the Chinese settlers came to the central Otago goldfields.

What was your favourite part of the visit?

Do you think life today is easier compared to over 100 years ago? Why?

What was something interesting you learned during you visit?

Thanks for visiting St Mary's - we hope you come back again next year!