We had a very successful trip to the Summerlee Museum on Monday. The trip linked in with our topic about The Past and the workshop, titled ‘When Gran was a Girl’ focused on exploring items from the past. We all had an amazing time and enjoyed each of the different parts of the museum there was to explore.

We started off by visiting the Miner’s Cottages. The cottages show what living conditions were like in the past. There were many cottages to explore and they started from around the 1840s to the 1980s. We could see a big difference as we moved from cottage to cottage!

     

     

     

We then went for a walk along the canal which led us to the park.

We spent quite a while exploring the park and had lots of fun, especially on the pyramid climbing frame.

     

     

Before lunch, we had time to explore the different areas of the museum. There was lots to see and do…

     

The final part of our day was the workshop. We were first shown three items from the past, a record player, camera and telephone and discussed what item our grown ups now use today that do all three things these items did.

We were then invited to explore the three stations. One was a green grocer’s and this allowed us to discuss where food was bought from in the past.

Another station consisted of toys from the past such as skipping ropes, a cup and ball and a hoop and stick.

     

     

Probably the most fun of all was the washing station. We had to scrub the clothes to make them clean, then dry them using the wringer and then hang them to dry. We had to be very strong to turn the handle on the wringer!

     

     

     

The last part of our afternoon was learning some moves from the 60s. We learned three different dance moves and got to perform them with some music. We even got to dress up in some outfits from the 60s!

     

      

Thank you to our parent helpers who came along to the trip and also to those who offered their time, we couldn’t have done it without you