Your story
How can we tell stories of the past?
Learning intention – We are learning to communicate stories of the past.
Success criteria – We can compose a narrative about the past and can use a variety of communication forms.
Dear Molly
Did you read the letter from Molly sent to your class?
Compose a personal recount of your visit to the Schoolhouse Museum as a letter to Molly
Or, compose a factual recount describing aspects of school life in the past. State what you know and how you know it.
Draw
What activities did you like best on your excursion? What did you learn from them?
Draw yourself doing four of the excursion activities.
Compose a sentence describing what you're doing in each.
Tell a friend what you learnt about the past from each activity.
Recite your 3x tables
In the past, students learnt their arithmetic tables by rote learning – remembering it 'off by heart'.
View the video to practise chanting and learning your 3x tables.
With a partner or friend test each other – 'What is three sixes?'
How fast can you say your 3x tables? Time it.
Games, games, games
During your Schoolhouse Museum visit you played skipping, quoits, bowling hoops and fly. Hopscotch is also a game from the past.
You might have also done some chants and rhymes.
Teach your class buddies one of the games you learnt.
Teach them some chants and rhymes.
Imaginative recount
Can you imagine being a child in the past?
Pretend you are a 1900s school pupil and write an imaginary recount of one school day.
Draw on your excursion experiences and the Photos page.
If you can, write it with an ink pen.
Visual timeline
Timelines are used to sequence events. The Schoolhouse Museum is like a living timeline with rooms from 1877, 1893, 1910 and the 1950s.
Freeze frames
In groups create tableaus or freeze frames to represent aspects of school for different time periods. Perhaps:
1880 – sitting up straight in rows, writing on slates
1900 – wand or dumb bell exercises, maypole dancing
1910 – sitting in dual desks, writing with ink pens
1950 – playing fly and skipping, opening a Globite suitcase
1960 – printing with a jelly pad and stamps
2022 – working on flexible furniture, carrying a backpack.
School history hunt
Most schools have remains of the past that give clues to their history.
Search out plaques, honour boards, photographs and other evidence of your school's past.
Take photos of them.
Label and sequence the photos to create a visual timeline of your school’s past.
