Jumpstart! History

Engaging activities for ages 7-12

Sarah Whitehouse, Karan Vickers-Hulse

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317915430
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This collection of simple to use and fun activities will jumpstart pupils' understanding of the historical skills of chronology, enquiry, historical inference and knowledge and understanding of people, places and time.

History is an effective way to engage pupils in a topic and can act as a fantastic hook for learning. This book will enable you to make history a fundamental part of your classroom, to enhance not only the pupils' historical understanding but also to deepen their understanding in other subjects.

Areas covered include: -

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• Egyptians

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• Ancient Greeks and Romans

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• Saxons, Vikings and Normans

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• Stone Age

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• Bronze Age

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• Iron Age

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• Tudors and Stuarts

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• Victorians

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• World War Two

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• Post-War Britain

This indispensable classroom resource will celebrate history and give children the opportunity to experience the thrill of finding out about the past. It will be a lifeline to any classroom teacher looking to teach history in a fun and exciting way.

CHAPTER 1

Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age

This chapter aims to give an overview of what life was like thousands of years ago providing opportunities for the children to make enquiries about how the lives of Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age people were different to their lives today.

The Stone Age went on for a long time but life did not change all that much during that period, priorities were: gathering food and surviving the elements. It was named The Stone Age as tools and weapons were made of stone. Later came the Bronze Age because people started to use bronze for decoration, tools, armour, weapons and building materials.

Millions of years ago, periods of time were named not after the civilisations but after the tools that were used; hence the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE IN THE STONE AGE?

A little bit of knowledge ...

The Stone Age lasted more than 3 million years and ended in around 2500BCE with the introduction of metal tools and weaponry.

It is thought that the first British settlers came from Europe around 500,000 years ago and could walk across the land mass that joined Britain to Europe at that time. Britain only became separated from Europe approximately 8500 years ago when the melting ice formed the English Channel.

In the Stone Age life revolved around gathering food in often harsh conditions and surviving – Stone Age people would sometimes shelter in caves for protection. Later in the Stone Age people discovered farming and began to work the land in a more structured way.

What is a henge?

The first farmers in the latter part of the Stone Age began building a series of major monuments. During this time there were many mounds and monuments built as burial sites or worship structures. The word henge refers to a type of mound that was built in the Neolithic period (4200BCE–2500BCE) in the later part of the Stone Age. There were more than 400 henges built, many of which are still standing today; the most famous being Stonehenge in Wiltshire. There are many other surviving henges including examples at Avebury and The Ring of Brodgar in Orkney.

Activities

1. Stonehenge structures

Look at images of stone circles that were made in Stone Age times such as Stonehenge, Stanton Drew and the Nine Maidens of Boskednan and ask children to think about what they believe the purpose of these structures were (e.g. measure the movement of the sun and moon, as a special place of worship); providing reasons for their thoughts. Talk about how historians believe these structures may have been used, for example: the summer solstice was very important to people in the past because they needed the sun to stay alive to produce their crops and it was a time of celebration. The stone circles often line up with the rising of the sun and therefore some people believe that this meant that the Stone Age people may have worshipped the sun.

2. Stonehenge: What does it mean to you?

Although Stonehenge was built over 5000 years ago it is still a site of significance today for a number of reasons: an iconic British monument, a place of worship and somewhere to feel at peace or a symbol of the past. Show children paintings of Stonehenge by the famous artists Constable and Turner and ask them to think about why these artists chose to paint Stonehenge. Why does Stonehenge draw so many people to it? Ask children to make a poster, pamphlet or leaflet to encourage tourists to Stonehenge – they can draw their interpretation of Stonehenge and include information from reputable websites.

What can we learn from Skara Brae?

Skara Brae is a New Stone Age (Neolithic) settlement located in the Orkney Islands in Scotland. The site was originally built around an old ‘midden’ site which consisted of human waste such as food remains, excrement and animal bones. It is made up of eight houses set in a cluster and is one of the most complete Neolithic villages in Europe. The design of the village was very sophisticated and this tells us much about the changes in the Stone Age from beginning to the end. By the Neolithic period the Stone Age people had developed the skills and competence to improve their quality of life. The village had features such as sunken houses to protect from the weather; square rooms with a hearth for heating and cooking; stone built pieces of furniture such as cupboards and seats; a door made from a stone slab that could be opened and closed and a drainage system for a basic form of toilet.

Activity

Escape to the Orkneys

Ask children to imagine they are estate agents and have been given the task of selling a home in Skara Brae to a Neolithic family who are looking to settle. (Remember to point out to children that this would not have been how people found settlements in Neolithic times!) Children should sell the features of the house and use persuasive language to entice their buyers. This works as a written exercise or it can be done as a drama activity.

How did life change in the Stone Age?

The Stone Age spanned many thousands of years and can be broadly divided into three periods.

	Stone Tools	Homes	Sites of Significance
Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age)	Stone tools used	People were nomadic and did not settle in one place. They were hunter-gatherers	No recorded sites of significance
Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age)	Stone tools used and developed – smaller and more effective	People were still nomadic but often settled for longer periods in temporary camps	No recorded sites of significance
Neolithic (New Stone Age)	Stone tools becoming more sophisticated First evidence of pottery	People began to settle on farms and create permanent settlements	First recorded evidence of sites such as henges

Throughout the Stone Age there was no written language and it was not so easy to communicate. This is why it is much harder for historians to gather evidence from this period; one way they can find out abou...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Authors’ note
• Introduction
• 1 Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age
• 2 The Egyptians and Ancient Greeks
• 3 The Romans
• 4 The Saxons, Vikings and Normans
• 5 The Tudors and the Stuarts
• 6 The Victorians
• 7 World War II and post-war Britain
• 8 Local history