Archeologists working in Room 19

When we went to the Auckland Museum, we found out how important artefacts from ancient civilisations were in helping archeologists piece together how people lived and worked long ago.

We practiced working at an archeology dig by carefully skimming each layer of sand to find all the parts of Mrs Wulff's special china plate.

Ancient Rome

In our theme, Ancient Civilisations, we are learning about Ancient Rome.

We made catapults using soft drink cans, forks and rubber bands.  They projected tinfoil weapons in a similar way to the military catapults used by the armies in Ancient Rome.

Instead of books, people in Ancient Rom read from scrolls.  We made our own scrolls so we could read Roman numerals and phrases in Latin, like 'Adsum" which means "I am here" when we answer the roll.

Auckland Museum trip

Rooms 2, 19, 10 and 8 visited the Auckland Museum. While we had enough time to look around all the exhibits at the museum, our main focus was Ancient Civilisations.  We looked at artefacts, man made objects that give us clues as to how people lived in ancient times   We all visited the Ancient Civilisation exhibition and took photos of artefacts from Ancient Rome, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient China.

Everyone was impressed by the Ancient Egyptian mummy and its wooden mummy case.  There were plenty of other artefacts to photograph and study in the Ancient Civilisations Hall as well.

After lunch, we visited the museum classroom to learn more about ancient artefacts.  Each group was able to handle some artefacts and find about their original use.  Then each group shared what they had found out with the rest of the class.  Can you remember what each artefact was used for?

Roman aqueduct

We made a model of a roman aqueduct.  We watched how water travelled from the mountains, across the valley to the hills and down into the reservoir in the city.  Here the sediments in the water sank to the bottom and the clean water at the top flowed through pipes into the house, and finally trickled into baths and sinks in the home.

Maritime Museum

On Wednesday we went to the Maritime Museum with Room 18 to find out about the sea that surround us in Auckland; how we can care for it and how we can enjoy it.

We travelled from Howick to the City by bus.

We identified sea creatures you could expect to find on the coast line.

We found out what it would be like to be caught in a fishing net, as catch or sadly as by-catch.

We had to wear life jackets when we were in or near the water.

We could try our hand at sailing in the museum. 

We looked closely at sea life under the pontoon.