Year 5 Excursion to Sovereign Hill
The Year 5 students ventured to Sovereign Hill as part of their inquiry unit “Who and what shaped Australia?” It was a great day for the students as they learnt about the Gold Rush and how this event shaped Australia today. Some of our Year 5 students have written an account of the day.
On Friday the 10th of December the Grade 5’s boarded the buses at 9:00am to travel to Sovereign Hill in Ballarat. When we got there it was about 10:00am and we started eating our snacks on the benches by the lake.
Later we walked and explored different shops and the way they presented the olden day living. Soon we went into the depths of the earth underground to the mines and saw the Welcoming Nugget of gold and how they dug and found it with the help of the holograms and self guided recordings throughout the tour. To go through the experience ourselves we went gold panning and some of us were lucky to find little bits of 24 carat gold!
The Black Smith is where we went next and he told us how the blacksmith industry began and how it has changed over the years. At 12:00pm we went to the Confectionery which is where they make all the candy. We entered the doorway and a sweet glorious smell filled our noses and we all rushed inside. There was a man making candy and telling us step by step what he was doing. After someone spotted them, we all went crazy over the goats that were in the field. Later, after we all settled down we went to the Candle and Soap shop.
After a quick lunch break we went to the most fascinating part of Sovereign Hill: the Gold Pouring. We learned there that gold must go through a lot of steps before becoming a gold bar. After the fascination ran out we got crazy again in the lolly shop. After going insane twice we went to the playground and played around for a bit before sitting back into the bus.
Saanjh, Taranveer and Olivia