History Detectives at Wattleview Primary School

The Grade 1 / 2 students put in a fabulous effort to understand historical concepts expected of them by the Victorian Curriculum. What kind of evidence do historians use: "All sorts" "Asking questions" "Maps" "The things we see!"  The old (c1960s) paper map of Victoria caused much discussion in an age group more familiar with google maps. Student 1: "It's so big, it can't be just Victoria." Student 2: "No, I think it's the whole world". The chamber pot wasn't a surprise of course, what self-respecting primary school kid isn't amused by a good toilet? Chronology led to a collection of words and phrases to describe time in the past. And when it came to perspective there was some careful thinking about "what it was like to live with..." Living with no electricity would make you "nervous because you might fall down the stairs", candles could make "the whole house burn down" and it would be "hard to read". 

Their enthusiasm for learning how to do history was infectious so it was an easy decision to recruit them into History Detectives@Work. With their HD name badges in place, it was time for lunch but I was told afterwards there was a lot of history detecting going on in the playground. 

After lunch, it was time to put their new skills to work in solving the local history mystery. I won't say much about this or it will spoil those being planned for Term 4, but with their new skills and discovery of a past era "all of this reminds me of Back to the Future". By the end of the incursion they were able to report on their Local History Mystery for History Detective Internet Radio. 

Good work Wattleview History Detectives!

** For a (cute) rendition of the skills needed and questions History Detectives ask you can listen to the short piece of audio below 

** If you would like to see the 5 minute audio-visual summary of the History Mystery Incursion please contact me.

"Detective Emma said it was music, so it must be a giant CD"

They came up with more describing words for talking about change and continuity then I had space to write them!

Old reused coffee tin and coffee pod in plastic packaging led to a great discussion on reasons for recycling in the past and today

"It's like a museum!"

"It's like a map you download" "Ohh, it's huge!"

Yaaayyy! Some of the new History Detective recruits