As part of our topic for this term "Making and Marking History" we were lucky enough to have a gold mining enthusiast come into the Hub and talk about his hobby of gold mining.

We have been exploring the history of our Parents, Grandparents, Great Grandparents and beyond and why they came to New-Zealand.  The Gold Rush was an important event which brought the Early Settlers to New Zealand and notably Otago.

Sophie's Grandad Norman Pulham came into the class and talked about his gold mining experiences.  He showed the children his amazing sluice which he made himself from gathered materials. This not only showed the children the process of separating the gold from the gravel in the river, but also Norman's amazing creativity of creating is own sluice to solve the problem of finding the gold in amongst the gravel and rocks. 

Norman also gave the children the opportunity to do their own gold panning using the traditional pans the Early Settlers would have used to find gold.  Mrs Bonney was very successful at finding the gold, but not quite so successful at retrieving the gold from the pan, a much harder process.

Norman's creativity did not end with the creation of his own sluice. He also shared with us an amazing model of an Early Settlers hut which would be found on the gold fields.  It was made of river stones which he collected and even had a working door.  He showed the children, the way he overcame the problem of how to get the door to open and shut mounted in the hut structure.

Thank you so much to Norman, the children enjoyed your visit immensely, and not only got to learn about how the Early Settlers panned and searched for gold, they also learnt about innovation and perseverance when faced with a problem and how to overcome this.