History in Year 3 - Savage Stone Age

Date: 22nd Oct 2021 @ 1:06pm

This half term we have been studying a prehistorical period called The Stone Age.  We have compared houses of the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic Stone Age as well as learning what materials they used to build them. We studied evidence such as cave paintings, tools, weapons and animal and human bones.  We recently discovered the reasons why Stone Age people moved from hunter-gatherers to starting farming communities.

The children have shared their learning.

“The Stone Age started around 2 million years BCE and lasted until around 3000 BCE.  It was split into 3 parts – Palaeolithic (old), Mesolithic (middle) and Neolithic (new) when metal was invented.”

“Each era in the Stone age had different houses. Some Neolithic houses used animal poo to fill gaps in the walls so the cold and rain couldn’t get in.”

“We know that the Stone Age people made weapons from flint.  They sharpened them using a skill called ‘knapping’. They used them to hunt for animals like deer, woolly rhinoceros, bison, boar and bears.  Cave paintings show this.”

“Stone Age people used materials that they found around them, like timber from the forest, turf and animal skin and later, in the Neolithic Stone Age they used stones to build.”

“When the Ice Age was over the ice melted. Rivers came and forests grew which meant there were fish and animals everywhere. People could build permanent settlements.”

“There is not much evidence about The Stone Age but skulls have been reconstructed into actual faces so we know what people might have looked like thousands of years ago.”

The children are enjoying playing The Stone Age during break time too; lighting fires, building houses and making weapons for the afternoon hunt.  Children in Year 3 have also created some amazing projects at home. Check out the photos below.

Our next History topic will focus on The Bronze Age and Iron Age in Britain.