Last week over three days the museum had the pleasure of hosting the year 7&8s from Mackenzie College. We kicked off the day with an strict school lesson with Miss Gray the scary 1880s school mistress! It was great fun to dress up!

Next, staying inside the museum, we used our taringa's and created an artefact timeline of Arrowtown's unique history. The students were then let loose in the museum to look at specific things that interested them! Hands on museums are so cool!

After lunch we moved to our outdoor activities. First up was a tour of the Chinese Village - it was great for the students to be able to see in real life what we had just talked about in the museum. The huts were small and cold looking!

During our Historic Walk we learned heaps more information about Arrowtown and it's mining days. Some students even went inside the dark jail cells with the doors closed! This bunch of clued up kids from Farlie already knew about Mary Mackillop and her school seeing there's similar one in Farlie! 

Gold panning finished off each day with those who skipped around the Mary Cotter tree having better luck (skill) at finding alluvial gold! Those with patience and determination were nicely rewarded! Ka rawe, Mackenzie College! Remember- KEEP YOUR FINGERS OUT OF THE PANS!!

Today Roxburgh Area School visited the museum. This school was particularly interested in looking at what children did 150 years ago as they are turning 150 this Easter!!

The school was split into three groups- year 1&2, year3&4 and year 5&6. They then rotated around each activity. The activities included making butter and rag mats. Each child was able to take home a swatch of rag mat and eat a bit of bread with the butter they made on it. I heard some students say that this activity was really cool and they will remember it for ages. The next activity was the 1880s school room with mean Miss Gray. She yelled a lot and and even caned a child. Much more grumpy than teachers today!! The final activity was playground games. These were the games that the children would have played at lunchtime in a goldfields school. There was skipping, quoits, knuckle bones, cup and ball and more! Some we still play at school today!

The sessions were all whizzed through and before long it was time for Roxburgh to leave. They must've known that the rain was coming!

We hope you had fun! Try answer the questions below

• Did you like the butter? Was the rag mat hard to make?
• Where you scared of Miss Grey? How many pennies in a shilling?
• Which of the schoolyard games do you still play at school? Which game was your favourite?

And please fill in the student evaluation: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=xvfdzS1NfcByFrqwZ2v38XqDvczumjvsII7TJSUZ9og%3d