The Stone Age to the Iron Age 

This term, and continuing over half term, we are looking at how human life changed from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. 

In week 1, we looked at where the Stone Age sat in our world chronology and how long this period was. The children then had to create and order a series of significant Stone Age events to make a cohesive timeline from the start of the Stone Age to the end and the start of the Bronze Age. 

In week 2, we looked at how to survive the Stone Age, we looked at tools, hunting, food and clothing. We looked at what Stone Age people needed to survive and how they went about finding or hunting it. 

In week 3, we looked at evidence and how to interpret the evidence that has been found of Stone Age people. We looked at the types of archaeological evidence that has been left behind and asked questions about what it can tell us. We looked at the site of Skara Brea and all of the pieces of evidence that was left there. The children had be become mini archaeologists and tell me what they evidence could tell us about their lives. 

In week 4, we started to look at the Bronze Age. We looked at it on a timeline and its position in global history and then we began to compare the Stone Age to the Bronze Age looking at not only differences but similarities. 

This week - We looked at how important it was to mine copper and tin in order to create bronze. We looked at how they mined using primitive tools as well as how children were used in the mines as not only did they not have to be 'paid' as much as an adult but they were small and were more able to fit into nooks and crannies that adults were not able in order to find missed seams of copper. The children then created application forms applying to work in a local copper mine.