Mystery Object

We tried to solve a mystery today! Mrs N was gardening on the weekend and found something interesting. It was a rock with a bird and some branches painted on it. It looks very old and we were excited to think about where it came from. We worked in groups to think of answers to some of the questions we had about the discovery.

Who made it?

• A man or a lady in the olden days
• An artist
• Aborigines
• The person who lived in the house before Mrs N

What is it for?

• It could be some sort of decorative ornament for display.
• Maybe it was for scaring bugs away (because they're scared of birds).
• It might be a message to someone to tell them there are birds in the area.
• It could have been used to tell a story.
• Maybe it was for attracting other birds.

Why was it in Mrs N's garden?

• The people who lived in her house before her might have left it there.
• A dog might have found it somewhere else and dug a hole and put it in.
• Aborigines might have lost it before the houses were built.
• Aborigines might have buried it to keep it safe and so nobody would find it.
• It might have been left as a message or a warning about birds.
• Burglars might have dropped it and it got covered up by dirt.
• It might have been left behind by someone who had no room to carry it.

Even though we probably won't find out for sure who made the object, it was still interesting to think about.

Mrs N's discovery on the weekend was well-timed, because we're learning about archaeology this term. We watched The Magic School Bus Shows and Tells and learned some very important words that will help us.

Archaeology - Finding out about people from the past based on the things they left behind.

Artifact - Items, or parts of items, made by people.

Fossil - The remains of things that used to be alive.

Hypothesis - A guess about how or why something happened, based on clues.

We have also been busy, busy, busy counting our Coles Sports for Schools vouchers. So far, we've counted over 8,000 of them and we still have quite a few to go!

Love from The Smarties and Mrs N