Stepping into the Stone Age

21 Nov Stepping into the Stone Age

Wow, what an amazing day we had at the Carymoor Environmental Centre! Our day started with an introduction from our wonderful, and very insightful, Stone Age instructor Beth. During the introduction, she spoke about recycling and then chose some children to become a human timeline. The children had to work out where on the timeline historical events happened. After this, Beth showed the children a new song about being chased by a woolly mammoth!

Throughout the day the children enjoyed a variety of activities. These included:

• Fire Lighting

The children were shown a range of different materials and fungi that the Stone Age people used to light fires. Then the children then had a go at making ‘dragon sneezes’ with fire strikes onto cotton wool. This was AMAZING!

• Stone Age Kitchen

During this activity the children assembled at the round house and gathered around the hearth. The children sampled lots of different foods that would have been typical in a Stone Age diet. The honey, oat crumble and roasted apples were delicious.

• Foot Prints of the Past

The children were transformed into wilderness explorers and, using the instructions, map and compass, the children had to locate all the prehistoric creature footprints.

• Build a shelter

Finally, the warning came of an impending storm so the children were tasked with building a shelter to give them protection. Off they went in their groups with just 10 minutes to complete the task. Team work was paramount as they set about pushing willow into the ground to make a frame. With time running out there was a final push and the tarpaulin was pulled over the top. All the groups had to squeeze into their shelters as the rain (in the form of a watering can) came pouring down on their structures. Luckily, no one got wet and the instructors commented on the fantastic building skills of the children.