Learning about Stone Age Shelters, Fire Lighting and Jewellery making at Forest School
Rachel Goss - 22 Nov 2020
Over the past 3 weeks Class 3 have been learning about how Stone Age people built their shelters, made jewellery and how they would light their fires.
Slide Show
Shelters- The Stone Age people would use sticks to make a teepee shape frame, lashing the poles with natural string made from plant stems. They would then cover their shelters with animal skins. They had to be able to take their shelters down easily as they would move from place to place to find food. In Forest School we made shelters using poles but used ropes to tie them and instead of animal skins we used tarps and fabric. We also used tent pegs, mallets and bungees which they definitely would not have had!
Jewellery- Using animal hide or string made from plant stems, the Stone Age people would make jewellery from animal bones, shells and stones. We used natural string to make our jewellery but chose to make beads from elder sticks and conkers. We were very lucky to use modern tools to cut our beads and make holes in the elder and conkers.
Fire- We looked at a selection of natural materials that may have been available to light fires. We looked at different types of bark, tinder fungus, pine needles and pine cones. The Stone Age people would have used two flint stones to make sparks or maybe even rubbed sticks together but we were lucky to have modern fire steels. We learnt how to make sparks to light cotton wool to start mini fires. We decided they wouldn't have had marshmallows in the Stone Age.
It is difficult to know exactly what things were like in the Stone Age as they used lots of natural materials that have disappeared over time but we have had fun thinking and having a good guess at what things were like. We are looking forward to doing some Stone Age cooking and making charcoal.