Focus on Learning

Stage 3 - Mrs Bartholomew

What a fantastic week we had in Canberra last week. It was such a valuable learning experience for all students and opened their eyes and minds around the very specific planning that took place to enable Canberra to become our nation's capital. Our days were very full which allowed us to really take in our nation's history as well as visit other sites that were linked to all Key Learning Areas. Here is what our week looked like...

Monday - Travel Day

We had a bright and early start arriving at school at 6:30am and on the road by 7am. Our bus driver Winston (a retired high school History teacher), informed us of our travel schedule and off we went. We had morning tea in Coolah and lunch in Canowindra. We finally reached our accomodation at 5pm and enjoyed a swim in the pool before a delicious dinner.

Tuesday -

We started our day with a delicious brekky in the dining hall, then off we went to explore Canberra. Today we visited some significant places starting at Geoscience Australia where we learnt all about earthquakes and the rocks and minerals that make up Australia. We even got to touch a piece of the moon! The only place in the Southern hemisphere where you can do this. Next we moved onto Parliament House where we were able to visit The House of Representatives, meet our federal member Mr Barnaby Joyce and participate in a role play of passing a bill. After lunch we went to the National Electoral Education centre where we learnt how to vote and carried out a mock election scenario. We finished our day at the National Dinosaur Museum where the students found out Mrs Bartholomew is not as old as they thought...at least when compared to dinosaurs!

Wednesday -

We had another jam packed day with visits to The National Capital Authority (Canberra's Information Centre) where we learned how Canberra was planned as our nation's capital. We visited Questacon (national science centre) and toured the magnificent Australian War Memorial. We finished our day with a night time visit to Laser Tag.

Thursday -

Our last touring day of Canberra saw us visit The National Museum, AIS (Australian Institute of Sport), The High Court of Australia (where we sat in on an actual case with 7 judges!) and The Royal Australian Mint...where the children tried their hardest to find out how they could possibly print their own money.