Stone Age for Year 3

With the National Curriculum in mind, I have created a high-quality history lesson designed to introduce Year 3 pupils to Stone Age tools, cave paintings and food. This lesson supports the National Curriculum by helping children develop a secure understanding of the Stone Age, explore how people survived, and use historical evidence to learn about life in the past.

Lesson Focus

This engaging lesson introduces pupils to three important aspects of Stone Age life: the tools people used, the food they ate, and the cave paintings they created.

Students will explore:

The different tools used by Stone Age people.
How tools helped people with hunting, cutting, chopping and preparing food.
What Stone Age people ate.
How hunter-gatherers hunted, gathered and found food.
What cave paintings were and why they are important historical evidence.
What cave paintings can tell us about Stone Age people and their environment.
How Stone Age tools, food and art were different from life today.
National Curriculum Links

This lesson supports the Year 3 History National Curriculum topic:

Changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age.

Pupils will:

Develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of the Stone Age.
Understand some of the characteristic features of Stone Age life.
Explore how people lived and survived in the past.
Use artefacts and cave paintings as historical evidence.
Ask and answer questions about the past.
Identify similarities and differences between the Stone Age and life today.
Develop and use appropriate historical vocabulary.
Lesson Format

This lesson is provided in PowerPoint format and includes detailed slides. It can be taught as is or adapted to suit individual class needs.

Each slide is designed to be visually engaging, informative and age-appropriate, helping young learners develop their historical knowledge and understanding.

16 slides in total

Learning Objective

To understand how Stone Age people used tools, found food and created cave paintings.

Success Criteria

By the end of the lesson, pupils should be able to:

Explain what the Stone Age was.
Identify some Stone Age tools.
Describe what different tools were used for.
Explain how tools helped Stone Age people to survive.
Identify some foods Stone Age people ate.
Describe how hunter-gatherers found and collected food.
Explain what cave paintings are.
Describe what cave paintings can tell us about Stone Age life.
Use evidence to make observations about the past.
Compare aspects of Stone Age life with modern life.
Key Vocabulary

Stone Age, prehistoric, hunter-gatherer, tool, flint, axe, spear, scraper, cave painting, evidence, hunting, gathering, survival, archaeologist, food, pigment