Year 4 News
Exploring Indigenous Australian Culture and Early Settlement Through the History Box Incursion
This week, our students had the exciting opportunity to participate in the History Box incursion led by the engaging facilitators, Cynda and Barry. The program provided a unique and interactive learning experience focused on the rich Indigenous Australian culture prior to European settlement, the arrival of the First Fleet, convict settlement, and early life in New South Wales.
Throughout the session, our students delved into the traditions, customs, and stories of the Indigenous Australians, gaining a deeper understanding of their connection to the land. This foundational knowledge set the stage for exploring the significant events that shaped our nation’s history.
A standout highlight of the incursion was when students were selected to dress up in traditional Aboriginal dress as well as early European costumes. This immersive experience allowed them to step into the shoes of historical figures such as Arthur Phillip, George Johnston, and Esther Abrahams. As they donned these costumes, the students learned about the contributions of these key individuals to the colony of New South Wales, enriching their understanding of the early colonial period.
Additionally, the hands-on activities allowed the children to engage with history in a meaningful way. They had the chance to create their own clay toys and love coins, linking their creative expressions to the historical context of early Australian life. They also participated in traditional Indigenous games, which provided a fun way to learn while fostering teamwork and cooperation among peers.
The feedback from our students has been overwhelmingly positive. Many expressed their excitement about the new things they learned, and they enjoyed the interactive approach that Cynda and Barry provided. This incursion has not only enriched their understanding of Australian history but has also fostered a greater appreciation for Indigenous Australian culture.
Please enjoy some student recounts of their favourite parts of the incursion.
Year 4 had a history box incursion. We did four activities and three rotations. The people came were Barry and Cynda. First we all went into our class groups and then we went to different activities, 4A's first activity was doing clay, for clay we did love tokens and clay animals. (the tokens were clay, not real tokens and the tokens were sprayed with silver spay paint)
LOVE TOKENS
Love tokens are a type of token, that convicts give to there loved ones before they go to Australia. Convicts give love tokens to be remembered. Too make love tokens the convicts get a token and rub it on the ground and then they use something to sketch a story or something else on the token. When we finished making our love tokens we put them on a tray so Barry and Cynda could spry them for us.
CLAY ANIMALS
We also made clay animals. First we made an animal shape body an then we put some twigs and leaf's on the body. Aboriginals used to do this a little differently. How they did it was make some clay and get leaf's and twigs from the ground. After we finished making them we put our clay animals on a table waiting for them to dry.
By Emma – 4A
On Wednesday all of year 4 went on an incursion about the First Fleet.
We looked at how they didn't have photos. The reason we did the coin activity is because they didn't have photos so instead they used coins as Love Tokens.
So when the convicts went to jail and eventually shipped off to Australia,
they couldn't contact their family or anything so they used love tokens as a gift to remember them. To make a love token they rubbed the coin on the ground and scraped off the face on both sides of the coin and engraved a letter to a loved one. But because we were not about to waste like 60 coins we used clay and a toothpick to engrave letters onto it. I wrote all my friends names on my token. Overall the incursion was really fun.
By Emily – 4A
Another day, another year in B.N.P.S with an exciting day! Today Barry and Cynda came into 4C. To tell year 4A, 4B and 4C.
Today we all talked about the Indigenous Australians.
On this day we all did: Dress up, Clay animals, Clay love tokens, Spice crushing, Knuckle bones and Ngaka Ngaka.
But right now ill talk about !Clay Animals!
Yes you did see the title I'm talking about Clay Animals!
Clay Animals was an Indigenous puppet toy that the Indigenous Australians made for fun about an animal. I did a Kookaburra. The kookaburra was dancing!
!Love Tokens!
A Love Token is a coin that was rubbed hard on the deck of the boat.
Anyways a Love Token was sent to you when you went away on a boat if you did something bad like: Steal, Robbery or etc.
You would go on the boat for about 7-14 years to Australia as punishment
!Dressing Up!
The Dressing Up wasn't like Dressing Up as like a princess or something, This Dress Up was special it was about Dressing Up as Indigenous Australians, a sailor or Red Coat.
A Red Coat was someone who was rich or special.
Now ill tell you who Dressed up.
Alex: Alex Dressed Up as a Indigenous Australian, Who wore a grass belt, a Kangaroo skin and a Beard.
Darcy: Darcy Dressed Up as a female Indigenous Australian, Who wore a Grass skirt and a baby carrier on her head to hold her baby.
Lenny: Lenny Dressed Up as a Indigenous Leader, Who wore an arm band, a shell belt and a Beard.
Me: I dressed up as a warrior! It was a great day.
By Lacey - 4A
When we got in 4C classroom we saw Barry and Cynda. They talked about the Aboriginal or known as First Nations people and the First Fleet. They told us all the things the First Nations people did. We did a lot of things like spice making and a lot more, but my favourite thing was the clay making with animals.
We had to make an Australian puppet. I know what you’re thinking, a puppet has nothing to do with our learning task - well it does. The First Nations people made them as the toys for kids. They would put them on a stick and the kids would play with them. We all got a chunk of clay and started to mould an Australian animal. I made a kookaburra, and others did an echidna and a platypus and much more. The day was really fun.
By Grace - 4A
SPICE CRUSHING
I'm holding the mortar bowl for Noah.MB while he crushes cinnamon bark, cloves and pepper. Then when he's done crushing the spices it's my go, it's really hard, crushing the spices, but I do a good job. When we're done crushing our spices, I put half of the spices in my bag and the other half in his bag. When I smell my bag, it smelt really nice.
We did the spice crushing because after the convicts were dropped in Australia, the ships picked up spices on the way back to sell in England.
By Matt – 4A
Today we had a History Box Incursion. When we got in, we met Barry and Cynda. They told us so many things about Indigenous Australians and then went to do activities.
Clay Animals
We got to make clay animals or puppets and then we left them to dry on the windowsill. This was 4As first lesson.
Clay Tokens
After we had finished our puppets, we made clay coins. They told us that they used old $1 coins that the convicts had rubbed flat and wrote messages on if they were in prison. They sent the coin to their families as a keepsake to remember them.
Crushing spices
What we did for this is we had a bowl and with a partner we had to try and crush the spices. We had to try and crush cinnamon, cloves and peppercorns. The reason why they did this is after they dropped prisoners off in Australia they went to Indonesia and got spices to sell in England to make money.
By Sam – 4A
Spices
19th of March the year fours had the History Box incursion. It was lots of fun so I'm going tell you my favourite bit about the incursion. My favourite bit was for sure the spice making bit and the clay making. The spice making was really hard. What you had to do was add cinnamon, pepper and cloves and use a mortar and pestle and you really had to push had to crush all the materials. I halved it with Kurt and that was really fun. We did this because in the fleets after they had dropped off the convicts, the other people on the boat would buy lots of spices on their way back so they can sell it for money in England.
Clay animals
The clay making was another really fun activity that we did. What you did is make puppets and love coins out of clay. I did the puppets first - I made a bird.
I made a sausage out of the clay then up the top I pulled some just before it ripped to make it look like a nose. Next 2 mini gumnuts for the eyes and a long stick for the arms now its a bird. We made these because the Aboriginal's made these for entertainment when they were bored, and so the kids could play with them.
By Liam A – 4A
AMAZING INCURSION
We had an amazing history box incursion. It was lead by Barry and Cinda. After a long talk about indigenous peoples and what we were going to do each class went to their first rotation. Our first rotation was to ground spices. The spices we got to ground were cinnamon, black peppercorns and cloves.
Then we went to our next rotation. 4B's next rotation had two activities to complete. We had to make clay dolls with nature and love coins that convicts would make so that their family can remember them. Our last task was ngaka ngaka. It is where you get to play against someone in a game where you get three pebbles and decorate them. Then you had to draw two horizontal lines and vertical lines, like noughts and crosses. Each player takes turns to place their stones in a space, hoping to get three in a row. Once all the stones are down (and if nobody has already won) is when it really becomes fun. Taking turns, you are allowed to move your stone to adjacent spots (including diagonal) to get three in a row - and win! We got to keep our stones so we could play again.
By Zoe 4B
DRESS UPS & GAMES
Today we had the most wonderful most epic and coolest incursion ever! It was a history incursion. Even though it sounds boring, you would be one hundred percent wrong! We got to learn about the first people of Australia and what people wore before now. Aboriginals wore stuff like kangaroo skin, possum skin, a grass skirt, short grass belt, baby bag, (that carries children) emu feather skirt and seashell skirt. After that we learnt how to play ngaka ngaka which is a bit like tic-tac-toe but way more fun!
By Maisie 4B
GRINDING SPICES
You will never guess how much I learnt from this incursion because I learnt a LOT.Grinding the spices was really hard work. You had to use all of your bodyweight to twist them as well as crushing them. The spices you used were cinnamon, black peppercorn and cloves. Together they make allspice. Once you grind them up you need to share the grounded spice with your pair (group of three for me) equally in your plastic bag. Once we had poured our bit of spice in we had to tie the bag airtight and put it on our pocket. Barry and Cynda challenged us to get our parents to cook with it.
By Arabella Hogan 4B
CLAY TOYS
I really liked the history box incursion. One of my favourite things was making the clay. We got to make a doll - I made a kangaroo. We also made love coins. In the olden day convicts use to rub coins on the floor so the kings face would fade away, then they would etch a message to their loved ones and give it to them before they were transported to the other side of the world.
By Ari Horrigan 4B
SPICE GRINDING
One of the things that I loved was crushing spices such as Cinnamon, Black peppercorns and cloves. It was quite hard at first but you got the hang of it very easily. To do it you need to find a partner, one to hold the mortar and one to grind it. The one holding the mortar counted to 30 once done they would swop repeatedly in till you time up you had 7-10 minutes on each station there were three stations. Was so much fun and interesting to look back 10000 years ago. I loved learning about the aboriginal people and what their minds did to survive.
By Emmy Kelly 4B
We had a History Box incursion on the aboriginal Australians and the First Fleet.
The presenters were Barry and Cynda and they told us that we were going to do rotations of activities, from playing Ngaka Ngaka to grounding spices.
My favourite thing was when we made Australian animals out of clay. I made a bilby because I thought it would be too hard to make something like a kangaroo or koala. We made these clay animals because we were replicating toys that the indigenous Australians would have made in the olden days because they only had materials from the land to use. There were no factories or toy shops so they had to create things with what they had available. We were able to use little gumnuts, twigs and leaves to add detail. Barry told us that we shouldn't add separate bits of clay for beaks, wings, feet etc because they would probably just fall off! The clay 'dolls' had to dry in the sun because there was no such thing as a kiln back then. I liked how we got to be creative with things from nature.
By Marcus - 4C
Today we learnt about Indigenous people but the thing that stood out to us was the indigenous clothing that they made by using grass, hair, animal skins and feathers. Barry and Cynda told us that all indigenous hunters had to wear a grass belt so if they caught any animals, like a lizard, they could tie it to the grass belt and then have free hands to hunt even more. Then they told us about a net like thing that went on a woman's back. It could hold a baby so that the mothers didn't have to put their babies on the ground when they needed to go somewhere. These net bags had holes to let air in, and in colder weather, the babies could be wrapped in fur ‘blankets’.
By Alex and Jude - 4C
In 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip set sail for Australia with the First Fleet of convicts. All the convicts on his ship were lucky because the second and third fleets were known as the death fleets and most died. The convicts on the First Fleet were in fact healthier when they arrived in Australia than when they left England! When Captain Arthur Phillip arrived in Australia he was met by two indigenous warrior men. Arthur looked up and saw many more warriors hiding in the bush. They started creeping forward, and then they stopped suddenly. Captain Arthur Phillip smiled nervously when one of the warriors crept forward again and inspected his teeth. He did this because Indigenous teenage boys have one of their teeth knocked in an initiation ceremony to prove they can bare a little pain and be ‘real’ men. Captain Arthur Phillip had apparently lost the same front tooth in a boating accident, so the warriors believed he was one of them. They all threw down their spears to show they trusted him. But they still weren't sure they could trust Phillip's mariners. So to prove that his mariners were men who deserved respect, Phillip ordered his mariners to pull down the pants – we all thought this sounded crazy, but the warriors knew they could trust them, because they were men like them. The Eora people welcomed them to their camp. On the voyage back, Phillip picked up spices from Indonesia and Malaysia to sell back in England.
By Emma – 4C
We learnt about Indigenous people and how they played some games like Ngaka Ngaka and knuckles. Ngaka Ngaka is a game, a bit like tic tac toe where you have to get 3 in a row. The difference is, each player only gets 3 stones. You have to move a stone into the next space and take turns until you end up with 3 in a row. There is also another game called knuckles. It is a game where you through 5 small bones in the air (we found out the bones came from wallabies) and flip your hand over to try to catch as many as you can on the back of your hand. Then you throw the ones that are on the top of your hand in the air and catch them. You then throw 1 stone up in the air and try to quickly pick up the ones on the floor and then catch the one in the air before it falls. It was harder than it looked.
By Liam A – 4C
