In our Forest school sessions in Year 3 we’ve been exploring more about life in the Stone age. We’ve found out through hard work and learning that life in the Stone Age was hard, survival was difficult and that Stone Age people had skills that we have long lost due to the rise in technologies and change in culture over the years.
We started by realising that we weren’t at the top of the food chain 30,000 years ago! We trained our observation skills in nature, moving more stealthily, developing our patience and listening skills imagining we are hunters and being hunted! We have developed some simple tracking skills, spotting game trails and evidence of animals in our Forest environment and played listening games.
We have also continued to learn about the plants around us- those that help for many reasons- nettles for tea, wild raspberries, brambles, elder to make hollow tubes, willow bark for cordage and those that hinder- Arum Maculatum.
Fire lighting was a key skill for survival, the children saw a demonstration of using a piece of flint and charcloth and a tinder bundle to start a fire, and then had a go at creating and manging their own small fires safely, using ferrous rods.
The children have seen how charcloth made, and how a (modern) ghillie kettle works- they have loved trying nettle tea and it has become a staple over the last couple of weeks, great for vitamin c (and good protein if you’re brave enough to nibble the blanched nettles!)
We have also looked at how cord may have been made in Stone age times from tree inner bark, and the children had a go at creating their own jewellery from beads they made from elder.
We’ve talked caves and temporary shelters and the children have loved having a go themselves.
This week we continued our learning by thinking about the skills that Stone Age People needed to be good hunters. We had a go at making our own Stone Age weapons with knotting and binding. Some of the children had a chance to safely fire homemade bow and arrows, and we talked about and looked at modern age snares and discussed what the Stone Age equivalent might have been made from.
