Stone Cottage Adventure

On Tuesday Morning my class was excited to hear that we were visiting the old Panmure Stone Cottage across the front of my school. Everyday I come to school and I see the house. I have always  wondered what’s inside. Today was so exciting because the class and I got to see the old famous Panmure Stone Cottage. Two classes went before our class arrived.

Stone Cottage Museum is considered by many to be a jewel of Panmure, because it is so well kept and just like the houses that the fencibles used to live in many years ago. It was built around 1854-1857 and relocated from Mt Wellington to its current site at 1 Kings Road, Panmure in 1971. 

The people who lived in the house were John Herbert Harrison, Phoebe Ellen Dunn,William John Dunn, and Ellen Churches.

It was my class’s turn to go and visit the Panmure Stone Cottage. We walked from my class down the gate to the Stone Cottage. We were met by a lady named Terry And Patrick. They were our guides. Patrick was a historian and he was telling us the background of the old Cottage.

When we went inside we went inside the Cottage and went inside the parlour of the house which in the olden days means living room we were greeted by an elderly lady named Josephine. Terry was showing us all the photos of the previous people who lived in the Cottage. Terry  told us they used to drink beer there and sit near the warm fireplace. 

Then Terry took us to the next Room which was bedroom number 1.

Terry took us to the next room. We entered the room and the first thing we saw was a bed with heaps of old fashioned clothes on it. Terry showed us the clothes first, which were donated by other people. She said they were made with mostly cotton and silk. We also saw a few creepy dolls that looked like we’re staring into my soul.

“Let’s head to the kitchen,” Terry Said. We headed to the kitchen and we saw a sewing machine and a table, more dolls and a cupboard filled with old plates.

We wanted to see the upstairs so we went upstairs.  The stairs were so narrow and my head almost hit the roof .  We went into bedroom number 2. It got turned into an artifacts room that had a lot of cool artifacts in there. There was a typewriter, corset and some more old stuff  from back in the day.

We were heading to the last room which was the kids room. Inside was a bed, a mannequin and some more dolls and old fashioned clothes. Patrick told us more stories about Panmure and the bedroom.

It was time to go back to school for morning tea. We all said our goodbye to Terry and Patrick and our thank yous. It was a nice  trip and I hope we have the chance to find out more about other jewels in Panmure.

Yesterday morning, on a bright sunny day, my class and I had the opportunity to take bicycle lessons. Kyla and Kate were  here from the Auckland Transport company of Bigfoot Adventures to teach us the safety of riding a bike. They introduced themselves to the class. Before we started they did a quick clothing check to see if what we were wearing was good for riding the bike.

Kyla told us to follow Kate outside and line up along the fence at the top court. We all lined up and Kyla told us to get a helmet and then she showed us how to put it on safely. We all got our bikes and I followed Kate to her group under the Canopy because I was less confident about riding a bike.

First Kate wanted us to learn how to balance on the bike while it was moving. We all passed it easily. Next we had to try and use the pedals while the bike was moving. That was more difficult!!

Kate told me to try and pedal on the bike while it was moving so I tried but I kept failing each attempt. Then Kate said ” maybe try and look up while reaching the pedals because if you look down you might hit an object that is in front of you”. After a few more attempts it worked and I could ride a bike around the canopy in just one morning.

It was a great experience to learn how to ride a bike. I’m so glad Kyla and Kate came.\

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the past 2 weeks my school went to swimming lessons at  CLM The Bays. On the first day we just learned the basics and got to know our instructor. My instructor was Izzy. We first learned how to get into the water safely. We have to sit on the edge, then turn our bodies around and slide down. When we got into the pool we had to just get wet. After that we had to swim from the start of the pool to the platform which was 12 metres away and halfway down the pool.

The next day we did our usual routine where we changed into our swimming togs and then headed to room 7 and played a couple games before heading to the bus.

When we got to the pools and it was so cold outside it felt like Iceland. We got inside the pool safely as usual and greeted our coach and got wet. We learned back stroke, breaststroke and freestyle and swam halfway to the platform.

Unfortunately I got sick and was unable to go to the last lesson. Swimming is fun and I am feeling way more confident each year we go.

 

 

Last week my class made Matariki stars for Matariki. At first we watched a video of how to make these Matariki stars. The first step was to cut a piece of cardboard into a circle and cut lines about 1.5 cm all around like a clock. Then we wrote numbers 1 to 12. We slid the  first colour of wool into the first slit and took it all the way down to the opposite side. We did this until we had completed a full circle around the circle. After this we took a second colour of wool  and created alternate star points gas you can see in my photo.) Eventually you get a Matariki star that looks like this and you can also add some more colors to your star and keep going until it is very colourful.

 

I am young and I am most known in my town called Goolwa. I pick up shells from the seashore especially when they are washed up on the tides. I love playing in the drizzle as the rain hits my eager face. Sometimes it sounds like a sizzle on a hot day. I don’t go to school but I have a friend whose name is Fingerbone Bill and he is like a teacher and friend to me. My dad’s name is Hideaway Tom and we live happily together in our humpy on the Coorong.

I am……………………………………………STORM BOY