Eighty-five children from Gate Pa School experienced a little time travel when they visited the Western Bay Museum in Katikati.

On Tuesday the pupils were greeted by stern Schoolmarm Miss Logan, aka Di Logan, and were marched around the museum before being dressed as students from 100 years ago as part of an inter-active session to recreate school as it was for pioneer children.

Once they were dressed in mop caps and aprons for the girls, and waistcoats and caps for the boys, Miss Logan had the children sit in the mat with legs and arms crossed while she outlined the school rules.

The children then stood to sing 'God Save the Queen” – but not to the current Queen Elizabeth, but to Queen Victoria of the early 1900s, says Miss Logan.

They were then dismissed to try their hands at butter churning, making gridle scones on the school room coal range, take part in a harvest themed and rather sedate relay race, plus a quiz based on the museum's current harvest exhibition.

Meanwhile two other groups of pupils were enjoying a Katikati Open-Air Art Mural Tour and a walk along the Haiku Pathway where poems are engraved on boulders. During the course of the day, all of the children took part in each of the three different activities.

Lorraine Hunt museum volunteer, oversees Gate Pa School students making gridle scones on the coal range at the Western Bay Museum in Katikati.

Teacher Yolly Bennett of Gate Pa Schools says Katikati offers an ideal mix of experiences for the nine to 11-year-old students and each activity fits well with the first term's topic ‘Getting to Know You'.

'The museum offers a unique opportunity for children to experience what life was like for their ancestors, without the digital technology they are so familiar with now.”

The Western Bay Museum offers the inter-active 'School and Life in the Early 1900s” programme for schools from throughout the Bay of Plenty and Waikato.

The museum, which presents a new exhibition every three months, is also part of a new initiate 'A Day in Katikati” which includes a visit to the museum, the Athenree Homestead, a Katikati Open-Air Art Mural Tour and Katikati Cuisine, a self-drive food trail featuring local artisan food producers.

To find out more contact info@katchkatikati.org.nz or for information about the museum, visit www.westernbaymuseum.nz

On the mat – Gate Pa School students in 1900s dress, pay attention to the teacher in the Western Bay Museum school room at Katikati.

Kingston Cooney, of Gate Pa School is fitted with a 1900s-school boy's outfit by Jenny Gawith at the Western Bay Museum.

Museum volunteer Bobbie Gillespie helps Ofa Filo and Emerald Tamihana of Gate Pa School churn butter during a visit to the Western Bay Museum in Katikati.