This week, Year 3 were invited to the Great North Museum: Hancock to take part in the second session of the ‘Treasure Project.’ They met with staff from the museum to further discuss historical treasure and then got the chance to be real life archaeologists!! In groups, they were given precious unknown after facts. They had to date them, draw them, analyse them closely, weigh and measure then use maps to locate where they were discovered and what they were close to. They then had to try to work out what the object was, who it may have belonged to, what it was used for, how it got to where is was discovered and piece together the historical jigsaw puzzle just like real life historians do today. They then met with the museum curator and got to see the real Roman helmet ‘cheek piece’ that will form part of their project work. The item had been carefully removed from the Hadrian’s Wall exhibition and had to be treated with extreme care as it was very, very old and precious! We were surprised to find out that it had been discovered in the River Tyne not too far from our school!! It featured a Roman soldier and a dolphin and is thought to be linked to the Roman myths and legends of Castor and Pollux. We had the chance to ask lots of thoughtful questions about history, archaeology and the past and found out more about the many jobs that museum staff have. After our (very tasty looking) packed lunches, we spent time in the Egyptian gallery on an artefact scavenger hunt. We saw the two mummies again and got to learn much more about our current history topic. The next session is where we meet and work with an artist (Teresa Poulton) to create a piece of artwork which will be displayed at the museum for everybody to see from late March to early September! We really felt like V.I.P’s and are so excited and grateful to be taking part in such a fantastic opportunity.