Welcome to Bonsai!
What a busy start to the year. During Autumn term we have been exploring the lives of our ancient ancestors from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. We even had a visitor from prehistoric Britain come in to tell us all about how early humans hunted and gathered food, shared fascinating stories and invented technologies we still use today!
For our local study topic during Spring term, Year 3 went to the fascinating site of Beamish Museum to see what life would have been like for industrial towns like Darlington over a hundred years ago. There was so much to see and do- we'd thought we'd never fit it all in one day! However, Bonsai made the most of their time in the open air museum. We visited a town from the 1900s which housed many traditional shops and services. We found lots of similarities and differences to modern day high streets and learned how different money was- we're very thankful we only need to deal with pounds and pence!
We also explored a pit village and colliery to discover how important the mining industry was to northern towns and cities. We spoke to local villagers and coal miners who told us all about how their lives are affected by the mines. We learnt some truly shocking facts about the dangers of working in the mines too!
The school house was incredibly interesting as it was such a change from what school is like today. We practised cursive handwriting on slate boards even though the tables and chairs were rather uncomfortable! We even learnt about how strict the teachers were in those days and how they used the cane as a punishment. Thank goodness that doesn't happen now!
Despite the long walks around the beautiful landscapes (although some of us took the tram!), we had a remarkable day out full of facts and fun! Bonsai showed excellent behaviour during our trip and made Harrowgate Hill incredibly proud.