FPS Newsletter

Year 5 Spotlight

On Friday 19th April our Year 5 students visited Sovereign Hill in Ballarat on a relatively mild day (by Ballarat standards)!

 

This excursion allowed the students to immerse themselves in life on the goldfields, including panning for gold, visiting the Red Hill mine and shopping in the main street – the lolly store seemed to be a favourite! 

 

This experience will help support our understanding of the Victorian Gold Rush for both our history unit and writing of historical fiction. 

 

These are some quotes from the students about our day at Sovereign Hill:

  • Going into the underground mine shaft was cool and we got to watch a hologram. All of the kids liked the HMS Catherine playground. ~ Andy, 5A
  • I liked the gold pour. It was interesting how quickly the gold bar cooled down in the water. ~ Lucien, 5A
  • It was funny when we were in the gold mine and Tyler screamed out “I don’t want to die” and Erin said “me too!”. ~ Erin and Tyler, 5A
  • The horses pulling the carriages were adorable and the best (but not as good as my dog Carter). ~ Nadia, 5A
  • The raspberry drops were sooo good. Leni, 5A
  • There was so much to see! But it was so hard to find gold when we were panning. There were lots of people dressed in weird costumes and some things were totally overpriced! The mines were really scary! ~ Tilly, 5A
  • I loved the antiques shop. ~ Georgia, 5A
  • I loved going down the mines. It was kind of scary but also awesome. ~Penny V, 5A
  • I loved the mining trip, especially the animation and the sound tracks. ~Emi, 5A
  • I liked mining and learning in a gold rush school! ~ Lucia, 5A
  • I loved learning about the gold rush and using a pan and cradle to find gold. ~ Jacob, 5B
  • I enjoyed being with my friends and having fun. It was scary when I went down the mine but it was also fun. ~ Paige, 5B
  • It was satisfying watching the gold get poured. ~ CC, 5B
  • It was great learning about artists and chefs who migrated to Australia during the gold rush. ~ , 5B
  • I enjoyed panning for gold. I found about 5 specs! ~ Sophia
  • I liked seeing all the pictures in the education session and how closely they were able to replicate the documents and pictures. My group investigated who our mystery person was, where they were from and what their job was. ~ Lily, 5B
  • It was a fun day, full of interesting experiences that made us feel like we were back in the 1850s. We enjoyed panning for gold and liked being able to buy some yummy olden days treats. The mine tour was a little dark and a tight squeeze. ~ Poppy & Clara, 5C
  • At Sovereign Hill, we got to experience what it was like back in the olden days. We panned for gold, visited an underground mine tour, a town tour and we were able to buy lollies. Seeing the people dressed up, like soldiers and horses walk by. It was fun as well. ~ Stella & Lola, 5C
  • At Sovereign Hill, we had some much fun learning about how people lived in the olden days. It was like a living museum about the gold rush. ~ Daisy & Alexandra, 5C
  • Panning for gold was hard and I barely found any, but it was a unique experience. ~ Evan, 5C
  • The gold pour was so satisfying. ~ Nick, 5C
  • Lemon acid drops were the best. ~ Parker, 5C

 

~ Year 5 Teachers (Naomi, Olivia, Lauren & Blake) and Students