The Australian Gold Rush

Get ready for our trip to Bathurst, the home of the first Australian Gold Fields, by finding out all about the Gold Rush era of the mid 1800s in Australia.

Here are some great activities to help you build your knowledge about the Gold Rush:


Homework Week 4 - Amazing Gold Facts
Visit the Discovery Channel's website here and the  SBS interactive site about gold here to find some amazing facts about gold (The Patents link has lots of good facts and vocab). Make a list of the words to create your own word bank with words that are relevant to gold. Create a wordle or Tagzedo about Gold and print it out and bring it in to glue into your HSIE book

Class Reading
Visit the SBS's amazing site  to learn all about the Gold Rush era in Australia.  Click on the Discovery link and learn all about Edward Hargraves, who was instrumental in starting the Gold Rush in Australia.



Independent Reading
Read the Australian Gold Rush timeline that you have been given.  Highlight the most important events.  Use the reading to add gold vocabulary to your Wordle.

Paired Research Activity
Use the above amazing site to visit in pairs.  Note take and create a personal KWL chart in your HSIE book.  What do you Know about the Gold Rush in Australia already?  What do you Want to know?  This will help you to have some questions in mind that you would like to answer during our trip to Bathurst.  When we get back from Bathurst, you can fill in the last section, what have you Learnt?  The site contains heaps of interactive links, maps, stories etc to click on and learn about the Australian gold rush and some of the characters associated with it.  A fantastic resource for you to use.
 


Class Viewing - What's Happening Now?The modern take:
New use for old Gold mines - watch this quick BTN video about old gold mines and whats happening with them now.

Ned Kelly Series by Sidney Nolan

View the wonderful paintings by Sidney Nolan that tell the story of the infamous bush ranger Ned Kelly.  There are 26 of the 27 paintings in the series available to view on the National Gallery of Australia's website (here). Each painting has an historic note about the event in Ned Kelly's life that the painting depicts as well as some of the artist's reflections about the paintings.  What do you think of Ned Kelly?  Hero or villain?

Year 6 Scrapbook Instructions

Year 6 Scrapbook

Homework Schedule

This homework will continue until Week 9.  You are required to buy a book or use what you have at home to create your Primary School scrapbook.  You might like to use a book with blank pages like an art book to stick things on or a display folder or a scrapbooking album (K-Mart, Spotlight, Riot Art & Craft).  The choice is yours. 

This scrapbook is going to be about your journey and time at Sacred Heart Primary School (or other primary schools if you have attended more than one school).  Throughout the process you can use photos, drawings, pieces of work, certificates, poems or anything that describes your time at this school.  You will then need to write a reflection about each year in your primary school journey.

Wk 1        Cover page

Wk 2        Kindergarten

Wk 3        Year 1

Wk 4        Catch up week 
Wk 5        Year 2

Wk 6        Year 3

Wk 7        Year 4

Wk 8        Year 5

Wk 9        Year 6

You are to bring your scrapbook to school each Friday so your teacher can check your progress.  You will share your scrapbook at the Spirituality Day coming up later in the term. 

Display each year in a neat and interesting way, creating a wonderful reflection of yourself and your years at primary school.  Be as imaginative or creative as you like and enjoy reflecting on your Primary School Years.

Mrs McNally, Ms Rudd & Mrs Williams