Teaching, Learning and Wellbeing
Year 4 Strike Gold at Sovereign Hill!
Fortunately, our Year 4s enjoyed some much-needed fine weather for their costume camp at Sovereign Hill earlier this week. Students spent Tuesday fully immersed in the Costume School program, stepping back in time to learn about life on the goldfields.
The Year 4 campers were also treated to the Aura Sound and Light Spectacular on Monday evening, ventured underground on the Red Hill mine tour, and watched a range of demonstrations, including gold pouring and candle making. Of course, no trip to Sovereign Hill would be complete without the perennial favourite—panning for gold!
Here's what some of our Year 4 students had to say about the Sovereign Hill Camp:
Hazel:
Day One
Grade Four camp at Sovereign Hill was an indescribable experience. When we arrived, we had lunch then straight away went into a range of fun activities. First, there was an introduction at a very cool theatre. The man talked all about the camp and where to find all the facilities. I was in group one and we went to the candle making store for a demonstration. We learnt about how the candles were made, what they were made of and how the store had to be located nearly three kms out of town because they made the candles out of boiled animal fat. Since the smell was so horrid, it was a law to be out of town. Then my group went bowling because we had a bit of free time. I admit we were all a bit surprised when we saw all that wood and how different it was to now. Then we headed down the hill to the Red Hill Mine. It was about 15 metres deep and very dark and cold. I was actually very scared, especially when a hologram of a man came out and started talking about when he found the “Welcome Nugget”. When we came out of the mine I was literally shaking. Then we went down to the diggings to do some gold panning and I discovered something I’m very bad at.
Then everybody's favourite time of the day - the confectionery demonstration. The man working there made some horse head lollypops and toffee apples and gave us all a sample of a raspberry drop and it was delish! My group had a wander down main street until we were called to go to our cabins. I was in Esmond Terrace and it was very nice. The facilities were all very clean but the bunks rocked around when you got onto them which I found a little disturbing. The dining hall also lived up to our expectations and the food was pretty good although the service could have been better. After dinner, we had the AURA light show. The light show showed from the very beginning of time to now, explaining what happened in the gold rush and the gift of gold. Then everybody was exhausted and went to bed.
Day Two
The two groups came together to form one and we went to school. That's right - school. We got into costume and became part of the living museum. The girls wore a floral dress and a white pinafore and the boys wore knickerbockers and a shirt. We had to walk in two lines. We did reading, writing and arithmetic. Morning tea could have been better because the scrolls were awful! I really admired our teacher because he really knew what to do with the naughty boys. Lunch was okay but the pies were tough and chewy.Then we did some more at school then we went to the gold pour. He showed us how the gold was melted and then put into moulds and how hot it was. When he took it out of the water, the man pranked us all by saying “It should now be cool enough for me to touch - aahhh”. It fooled everyone, we thought he had burnt his hand! Then we had two hours of cabin time and then we headed to the dining hall for dinner. It was chicken parma. The chicken was dry and the ham was all weird and wet. For dessert we had frozen yogurt, it was okay.
That night was movie night. Everyone was super excited until they found out what movie it was. It was 'Dog Man'. I think the teachers could have at least put a half decent movie on like a PG one, we all watch them at home! Then we all went to bed.
Day Three
Brekkie was the same as the day before. Toast and cereal but I guess it is a lot of work preparing food for nearly 100 kids. Then we went to school, again in costume. We wrote with actual ink and all the girls learnt to sew while the boys got to make card houses, not fair! Then a special guest came and it was her birthday so we sang happy birthday in Welsh for her. Then we changed out of our costumes again and had some lunch. It was a roll and a juice box. Then we got our luggage and went home to school.
A big thanks to all the teachers that made such a fun camp possible.
Rory
Sovereign Hill was not as good as I thought. The reason is the dressing up was ITCHY! One of my favourite parts was the gold panning and I LOVED the food on the second night because we had chicken parma. The cabins were not nice because there was an old comb under my bed.🤢 The cave mine was scary because a dude called Cooper scared me at every corner. The Aura light show was tiring and I fell asleep dreaming of donuts, until the gun shots woke me up and the Tom’s laughed. Which is why I rated this a 3 star review which is pretty good. ⭐⭐⭐
Jude
My favourite thing at Sovereign Hill was the mines. There were holograms and a recording guided our way. It was very scary and I found out I am claustrophobic. I also learned that it is very hard to sleep on camp because your cabin mates are always talking!
I rate Sovereign Hill 4.5 gold nuggets out of five.
Elliot
My favourite part of Sovereign Hill Camp was the Red Hill Mines because I learned water can be dangerous and the life of a miner was very hard work. Did you know that the second biggest nugget ever found was the 'Welcome Nugget', which was found near Ballarat?
I give Sovereign Hill Camp five gold nuggets of five!
Semester Two Reports
Semester Two Reports will be released to parents and carers next Wednesday 17th December. Please keep an eye out for the Compass announcement indicating when these reports are available.
Only one more week to go until the summer holidays! I hope everyone enjoys the final week of the school year.
Kerron Worsdell
Literacy Learning Specialist