Shantytown Trip 2018

Shantytown Trip ~ Chinatown

Last week totara 2 went to shantytown. We learnt about the chinese immigrants. Here is what we learnt about the chinese immigrants! ENJOY!

Chinese immigrants were very determined people they really wanted to find gold and they found that when they gold mined, where the europeans had been they found 100’s of pounds because the europeans just rushed through and chinese new that taking their time they would find so much gold and they did so.

Chinese also use tam’s to carry everything they needed to likes of fruit, vegetables. They also carried there fine gravel in rag like bags attached it to a similar designed flying fox thingy and it slid on that all the way to the bottom of the river where the men at the river would gold pan that fine gravel and see if there was any gold to be found it that fine gravel. Using things like this made it very easy for the chinese to gold pan, gold dig (in the rocks to get the gravel) really quickly and not waste any time.

Chinese were inventors. They invented the wheelbarrow which is very handy nowadays for people (like my dad) who like to renovate lots of things. Carrying heavy things like bricks, rocks, gravel, buckets of water is really easy with a wheelbarrow. Wheelbarrows back then looked like this

Very easy to use right, WRONG! Chinese had to walk these wheelbarrows around everywhere carrying gravel, fruits and veggies! Imagine that! All kids and adults these days have to go online and order and then get it delivered!

Europeans hated the chinese, they done such bad things to them such as cutting there beautiful long plaits off. When they could be walking to town the Europeans thought is was a good idea to push them off the track (that could be down hills), foot tripped the chinese over when they were carrying tams with all sorts of fruits and vegetables in. If your wondering why all of this is happening to the chinese it is because the chinese are on the europeans land but the chinese had a choice to come to there land BUT they had to pay, Coming to there land was roughly around 100 pound for each chinese person! The chinese didn’t come just because of the gold, they also came because they needed money to send back to there wives and children and they found that gold mining where the europeans had been they found what they left and a lot of gold HAD been behind because they rushed and the chinese didn’t they took their time.

When chinese finished gold mining or panning in one side of the river they would build a dam in the river so the river would run through the other side and they could begin to gold pan in that side the river was on before the built the dam. We began to make one a Shantytown with Mr B and we got quite far along but the water was still sneaking through the bottom and the rocks, through all the little gaps in the rocks! So then we started putting some gravel/sand in the gaps to try and stop it from getting through, it kind of began to work but by that time it was time to go back and join as a classroom and listen to our instructions!

Early today we watched a clip about the chinese in 1988 and they were in quite a dislocated area which basically means they were in a area where there is no town near by so they can’t just go for a 5 minute walk to town it takes them around ½ an hour but getting terrorised by the europeans it probably took longer. Whilst they were in town the europeans in town talked about them quite rudely, told their children to look the other way. I mean come on the chinese couldn’t be that bad! Could they?

Chinese always hide their valuables in safe places like in there pillows, keeping in mind there pillows were as hard as rocks BUT they always placed the gold nuggets and money or any valuables in the little pocket, placed there pillow up against the wall and then went to sleep. Placing the pillow up against the wall helped a lot because when someone tried to steal the valuables they would wake the chinese up.

How did the chinese make their houses? Chinese immigrants made their houses out of leftover rocks from there dams they made in the rivers. Also in the video clip Mrs Dalloway shared with us as a class and I noticed there doors were quite small and the man that was walking out of the door had to duck a little so he didn’t hit his head! But i think that was because maybe they didn’t have enough rocks to spare for their house.

When chinese went away they were single then they started to get messages saying they now had a wife, then a day or so later they would have a kid but they were still gold mining so they had to send money back to their wife and child so they all could have enough food, water, shelter ect! How do you think the chinese miners thought about that?

Chinese always have resourcefulness, This means they have the power to quickly come up with ways to overcome these difficulties like when they miss their family.

Now I will tell you what totara 2 did a Shanty town in CHINATOWN!

When we first arrived a shantytown a lady named Mrs Barber talked to us about the rules and health and safety. Then she turned to Mrs Meers and Mrs Meers took us inside and talked to us about what we were going to do! She even gave us an activity to do, that activity was she gave each group a object and each group talked to each other about what your group thought is was! Then 1 person from your group stood up and told the rest of the class what your group thought it was! Then Mrs Meers continued to talk to us and tell us what those objects were.

Then it was finally morning tea. We all got our bags and headed out to the playground and everyone was on the spinning merry go round! Instead I ate some cookies and a mandarin out of my lunch box. Then it was time to go back inside and Mrs Meers talked to us about what we were going to do for the next 1 and 20 mins and we got to do 2 rotations out of the 5 rotations in the same groups were in for the other activities! I had Kaine, Kaleb H, Trent, Callum, Zach and myself! Our first rotation was the tams which we looked like this carrying them around…

We walked around the town selling our pretend veggies and fruits. We sold some carrots to Miss Hines and some more veggies to the ladies in the office! We also walked around the shanty town, town and nobody was in the bank so we walked around past the hospital, past the fire station over the bridge and back to where we found the tams and then Mrs Dalloway said to go to the calligraphy room so we did so. When we got there, their was a lady there and she taught us how to write with the calligraphy pens and ink and we wrote some chinese symbols. If you wanted to you could write your name and there were also some practice sheets! After that we headed back to Chinatown and got ready for lunch! For lunch the ladies made us some rice and veggies and we had to challenge ourselves to use CHOPSTICKS! It was quite hard but once you got use to it you were away and could easily use them! Then if you wanted seconds you could, then after that we were allowed to get our own lunch and have some of that lunch!

After that we had our last 2 rotations, the first one we got to do was building a dam with Mr B. the people before us had already moved lots of rocks so all our group needed to do was place smaller rocks on the gaps and add some sand where there were teeny tiny holes so the water would go the way we wanted it to and it did so. Mr b dug in the water so it was deeper and so the water would come through deeper and flow more easily. After we finished that rotation we were on gold panning! Nicky's dad, Peter was on this rotation. I’m not sure if anyone found gold throughout the day if someone did, THAT’S AWESOME! When we got there some of us gold panned and Zach and Mrs Dalloway use the machine (I’m not sure that’s what it is called!) they didn’t find any gold but for sure the water was FREEZING! After that rotation we headed back to CHINATOWN and Mrs Meers and Mrs Barber wanted to take a photo of us so they told us to put our arms in our sleeves and then she counted to five and took the photo!

Then Miss Hines and Mrs Dalloway told us to go back to the room where we were before and sit on the mat! Then Mrs Meers talked to us for a while and then it was time to go. I was in Mrs Dalloway’s car with Staci and Rikki-Lee and I asked to sit and in the front so I was in the front on the way back to school. When we got back to school we were allowed to go home!