"Absolutely brilliant learning experience, the children loved it and learnt so much. A morning to remember. I will definitely be recommending Balestra to my teacher friends." Lauren, y3 teacher.
Stone Age workshop activity Details
Learn about the key events of all of the periods, handle a range of real artefacts, throw spears and have a picture with a rhino!
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All of these activities are for a single class at a time and last for one lesson. They can be combined to build your own Stone Age history workshop dependent on the amount of classes and the amount of time booked as per these examples:
Single class, full day itinerary (also available for 2 x activity half days)
LESSON 1:
Interactive Timeline
LESSON 2:
Artefact handling
LESSON 3:
Spear throwing
LESSON 4:
Rhino Picture
Two classes, shared single day example
LESSON 1:
Class 1 Artefact handling + (mini) timeline
LESSON 2:
Class 2 Artefact handling + (mini) timeline
LESSON 3:
Class 1: Spear throwing (while you run the Rhino picture task yourselves)
LESSON 4:
Class 2: Spear throwing (while you run the Rhino picture task yourselves)
"Your delivery and organisation were excellent, as you could see from the pupils' responses. Many thanks from us all, for a memorable living history day. " From the Staff and Pupils at Giggleswick Primary School, North Yorkshire.
Interactive Timeline
We take a walk through the Prehistoric Age in this fun group roleplay activity with a first introduction to our artefacts!
Covering all the objectives of the year 3 or year 4 National Curriculum primary history 'Stone age to Iron Age' topic, our fun interactive timeline is a great way to add meaning to the period that really enhances pupils' wider knowledge of the massive time period involved.
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Using the names of each period and their dates on the board, we cover all the key events such as the early humans of the Paleolithic; the end of the Ice Age in the Mesolithic and finally the Neolithic farmers, all with fun drama activities at the front of class and taught with the aid the the artefacts the pupils will be handling afterwards. We then follow on to the Bronze and Iron Ages with more drama and artefact activities to end our journey!
Artefact Handling Session
Handle real and replica flint tools, fossil bones and even part of a Mammoth tusk!
In this task pupils learn about and handle a range of real and replica artefacts, including highlights such as teeth and bones from real Stone Age animals such as cave bears; real flint hand axes; and highly detailed replicas such as red deer antler tools, spears and arrows.
This is then followed by a group sorting session, where pupils uncover, weigh, count and measure four different sets of genuine Stone Age and BronzeAge items such as bronze Celtic ring money, flint arrowheads and much more.
This is a highly popular task which really consolidates the pupils' knowledge of what happened, why and when in the different periods.
(extremely safe, foam-tipped :)
Spear throwing
How difficult was it to really have to hunt for your tea?
A pupil favourite!
A key part of Stone Age survival was the development of good hunting skills. This task brings home the difficulty that Stone Age people met when hunting, by putting the pupils in the footsteps of Stone Age hunters with safe to uselight foam-tipped spears.
Firing at three fake-fur targets, who can hit the Mammoth, Sabre tooth or Cave Bear targets for maximum points?
Stone Age Beast Pictures
Stand next to a full sized Woolly Rhino for a time travelling selfie!
One of the most striking features of Stone Age beasts was their sheer size, which is hard to imagine. This is brought to life in this activity when you are free to take your pupils’ pictures dressed as Stone Age hunters alongside our life-sized 3m x 2m picture of a woolly rhino. This is a great fun task that really imparts a sense of scale when it came to Stone Age hunting expeditions, and what is more, all the furs are fake so not a single rhino will be harmed in the making of your prehistoric selfie :).