Hands on Tauranga offers students stimulating and original learning opportunities with real museum objects that support the New Zealand curriculum at primary and secondary school level.
Create a culture of curiosity, excitement and wonder in your classroom with this mystery box containing 11 objects for your students to discover and learn about.
The objects come from our Hands on Tauranga WW1 / WW2 collection, our natural history collection, and our collection of early 1900's household objects.
> Included in the box are
Ideas for using this box in your classroom
Blindfold some of your students and ask them to pick an object out of the box. Ask them to describe what they think it is. Ask the rest of the class to give clues as to what it might be (what it is made of, what it might have been used for).
Use the clue picture cards and the names of objects cards. Ask the class to get into a circle, with the objects in the middle, along with the picture clue cards and names of objects cards. Ask the class to match up the objects with each of the pictures and and the name card.
Ask your students to describe what they think one of the objects was used for - this could be a writing task, or an oral language discussion.
Draw and write about an object or objects they are particularly interested in.
Students could choose an object to further research, and share their findings with the class.
Use the box to introduce a history topic with your class eg: life in Aotearoa NZ in the early 1900's
date: created 2024
subject area: Social Science, Science, te Ao Māori, Literacy, Oral Language
subject themes: Aotearoa, New Zealand, History, games, early 1900's life
handling collection number: HC80
Testimonials
"The Mystery Box is a big hit! The cassette tape was such an interesting one, they had no idea! We used the 'he aha tēnei?' (What is this?), 'he xxxxxx tēna' (this is a xxxxx) prompts in the box, which was a great way to teach some new te reo Māori phrases with our tamariki. I chose a student to come up, put the blind fold on, then feel in the box for one item and try to guess what it was. The other students gave him/her clues. Finally they took the blindfold off and tried to say what it was. This was a great lesson to promote oral language as there was a lot of discussion around the objects, and new vocabulary for the class as well." Teacher, Pillans Point School
