33 Year 6 students from St Mary's in Gore, came to visit the Lakes District Museum & Gallery in Arrowtown!

It was a busy day for these kids with our two educators Denise and Angela working with them. These students got to experience:

• A scary 1880's lesson with Miss Gray
• A museum visit which included handling artefacts
• A historic walk of Arrowtown where students got to visit and Old Gaol, Saint Mary Mackillops cottage, and some really old miners cottages!
• And some gold panning!!

What was your favourite part of your visit?

Do you think learning would've been easy or hard during the 1800's? Why?

Did you find gold?

Answer my questions and comment below!

11 year 6 students from Limehills School visited our museum. They had a fantastic camp planned, where they each had brought their scooters along, and played with them in the local skate park during meal breaks. These students sounded like they were having a fantastic camp - they spent one night listening to live music at the Blue Door bar and the owner of Saffron was so impressed, the kids scored free pizzas!

When the Limehills kids came to visit us at the museum they got to experience a whole lot more extra fun as well! Our day was filled with:

• A museum visit
• A tour of the Chinese settlement
• A scary experience with Miss Gray, and a naughty young student called Isobel!
• A historic walk of Arrowtown to check out the Old Gaol
• And some gold panning!!

What did the New Zealand Govt. do to the Chinese settlers to stop them immigrating into the country?

How do we spell "Gaol" today?

What was the type of gold we found in the Arrow river?

What did students used to get the cane for in the 1800's?

What was your favourite artefact that you got to handle?

Answer my questions and comment below about your visit to the Lakes District Museum & Gallery!

11 Students from Tisbury School visited the Lakes District Museum & Gallery in the Afternoon!

We started the afternoon off with a scary 1800's lesson with Miss Gray. This was followed by a tour of the museum, handling some artefacts, and then students doing some worksheets which focused on being a gold detective. At the end of the day, we all went gold panning and every single student found gold! WOW!

All the students really enjoyed a part of their worksheets where they had to write a letter about the difficult living conditions the early settlers and miners faced in Arrowtown. Everyone was inspired by all the history they had just learned, so everyone wrote lots!!

What is a long drop?

What is a butter churn?

Do you think learning was easy or hard in the 1800's and why?

Can you post a comment with a small example of what you wrote during the museum session?

Answer my questions and comment below!

St Brigids year 6 students visited us on Thursday the 24th of October. It was a really special day as we had a descendant from Mary Cotter in the group. Mary Cotter is very special to Arrowtown as she has a tree named after her after an avenue of them were planted in 1868. To this day if you skip around Mary Cotter's tree 3 times you get good luck! So when we went on our historic walk, I made sure we all stopped at Mary Cotter's tree so everyone could skip around it for good luck!

We also spent the day with an 1800's school room experience with a grumpy teacher called Miss Gray. Miss gray was really strict and liked to cane naughty children, her lesson showed us how different school used to be 150 years ago! The year students also had fun with a museum visit and handling artifacts like a Moa bone, a pounamu mere, a poha, old farming tools, and an old set of scales used to weigh gold. Everyone found it funny when they saw the old man in the long drop downstairs in the Streetscape. The Chinese settlement tour was sad, as we learned about how the European settlers weren't welcoming to the Chinese gold miners. We finished the day with gold panning, and the good luck from Mary Cotter's tree kicked in as a few of the students found gold!

How did the rugby ball marks get up on the ceiling of Saint Mary Mackillops schoolroom?

What naughty things would you need to do to end up being caned at school in the 1800's?

What do you use a pounamu mere for?

What materials did the Chinese settlers use to build their huts?

Do you think gold panning is easy or hard?

Answer my questions and comment below!

42 students from Lumsden Primary traveled up to Arrowtown on Tuesday the 22nd of October to visit our Museum. All 3 educators (Wendy, Denise, and myself) worked the day to help provide the students a great learning experience! The students learned a lot doing these activities:

• A terrifying lesson with Miss Gray in an 1800's schoolroom!
• A historic walk of Arrowtown where we checked out old miners cottages and the Old Gaol
• A tour of the Chinese settlement with a visit to Ah Lums Store
• A Museum visit where we handled artifacts like a really old Moa bone
• And gold panning at the Arrow River just like the gold miners did when gold was first found in 1862!

Miss Gray's school room showed us how difficult learning would've been a 150 years ago, with a strict teacher who liked to cane naughty students. While the historic walk showed us the small houses the miners families used to live in, with windows and doors that looked like a face. A tour of the Chinese settlement made a few people feel sad to think about how hard the living conditions were for those Chinese settlers living in Arrowtown, as they weren't welcomed by the European settlers. The Museum visit was really cool as we got to explore the different exhibits and learn a lot about how people traveled to the Wakatipu region and how the area has been used for hunting Moa, collecting Pounamu, farming sheep, gold mining, camping holidays, and growing grapes for wineries!

Were you scared in Miss Gray's classroom?

Why is the old Jail spelt as "Old Gaol"?

What is a fact you remember from your museum visit?

Did you find gold in the Arrow river?

Answer my questions and comment below!

We had 56 international students from ACG visit us from Auckland on Saturday the 19th of October! They were senior Geography students with a lot of knowledge already up their sleeves, but they were still keen to learn more here at the Museum.

We had our Museum Director David Clarke working with us for the day, so the students learned a lot from David's incredible knowledge of Arrowtown!

The students experienced:

• A visit to the Museum which included handling artifacts
• A historic walk of Arrowtown where students got to visit the Old Gaol
• A tour of the Chinese settlement
• And Gold Panning! Some students even found gold!!

Did you find gold on your visit?

What was your favourite part of your visit to the Museum?

What do you think of Arrowtown?

Answer my questions and comment below!

We had a full day primary programme with the year 6 kids from Palmerston!

It was such a fun day and it was jam packed with so many activities including:

• Having a frightening lesson with Miss Gray
• A museum visit and handling artefacts
• A historic walk of Arrowtown which included being locked up in the Old Gaol
• A tour of the Chinese settlement
• And some gold panning! Some of the kids even found gold!!!

We finished off the day, just before the hail set in - phew!

What was your favourite part of the day?

Did you find gold?

Who can remember the different materials the Chinese Settlers used to build their huts?

Do you think life would have been easy during the late 1800's or hard? Why?

Comment below with your answers!

October is super busy with all of the kids coming to the Museum from Arrowtown school to help celebrate their 150th!

Arrowtown School first opened in 1863, a year after gold was discovered in the Arrow River. This first school was a small wooden building with just one room for the whole school!

Students from different year levels will experience a different range of activities to truly understand how learning has changed and developed since 1863.

Year 0 - 2 students will experience Miss Gray at her worst, followed by a Museum visit

Year 3 - 4 students will get a short lesson with Miss Gray, with old school games and some quote readings of old Arrowtown school students

Year 5 - 6 students will create old fashioned portraits of ancient Arrowtown school kids

Year 7 - 8 students will truly get a feel of the civic duty students from the 1800's had, by making a trip up to the cemetery to help tidy it, along with a lesson with Miss Gray!

Do you think being a student today is easier than being a student during the past 150 years? Why?

What was your favourite part of your visit to the Museum?

What do you think Arrowtown school will be like in the future?

Answer my questions and comment below!