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Friday, 11th September 2015


Riverton School: the first visit of the year!

Thursday, 5th February 2015

Riverton School: the first visit of the year!

Ordering the artefacts  

  • Riverton School: the first visit of the year!Ordering the artefacts
  • Riverton School: the first visit of the year!Miss Grey in the 1800's classroom was pretty spooky!

Yesterday (4th Feb) we had the pleasure of hosting Riverton School as our first school of 2015! In keeping with their previous visits the students, teachers and Dad's army (all the parent helpers were men) were excellent visitors/learners. Riverton came in as part of their annual Year 5 Camp and the visit was run by museum staff Wendy, David and myself. The first activity was the museum visit where the students used their keen eyes and ears to make an artefact timeline. Students then went off and discovered the museum in pairs with a few prompting questions. I was particularly impressed with the students that I witnessed drawing on their prior knowledge- some recognised tools thanks to their parents' job while others knew about the mining for gold from Minecraft. We loved that you used real life connects - way to go learners! Next up was the famous Miss Gray- wow, was she was mean! Riverton pupils who had been to the museum last year warned these learners about how strict Miss Gray was. Now it's their turn to warn the year 4s! After a quick lunch we made the most of the WWI and the Wakatipu exhibition which is closing soon. This was lead by David, the museum director and fountain of knowledge. I was surprised by a cheery rendition of Happy Birthday from Riverton in the middle of the museum too! David then lead the students on a tour around town to WWI relevant sites. Then we finally got to make our fortunes gold panning. There was a fair bit of success and a whole lot of patience and determination! All in all an excellent day had by all and a great start to the year! Thanks Riverton!

Who can answer the following questions? Comment below if you think you can remember!

Can you remember what happened to the poor German man who used to live in Arrowtown, Charlie Eckhardt? What awesome purpose did the periscope have in the trenches? Why didn't we want to touch the water when we were gold panning? How many pence in a shilling?

If you have any choice as photos- email them to [email protected]