Stone Age Day

This week was Stone Age Day in Year 3 and what a fantastic day it was! Have a look at what we got up to!

Cave Paintings
Cave paintings from the Stone Age have been found all over the world and the children enjoyed looking at some examples of them today, before creating their own! They thought about what materials would have been available in the Stone Age and made sure to use similar colours on their own artwork. Using chalk, charcoal and pastel, the children created some amazing cave paintings of their own! We even turned their tables into ‘caves’ to help them feel inspired!

Stone Age Inspired Dance
The children imagined themselves living in the Stone Age in our dance session and worked in groups to create short routines inspired by activities from the Stone Age, such as hunting, foraging, making tools and cooking. The children practised travelling in different ways depending on the scenario (e.g. creeping while hunting and stretching tall for foraging) and also created some freeze frames to represent different activities.

Making fire
The afternoon was spent outside, where children learned more about the significance of fire, including how it was made and its purpose. After examining various pieces of flint and discussing their carving techniques, they went outside to try their hand at it. Using a shell, cotton balls, and a flint and steel tool, children worked in groups, taking turns to make a fire. Given the dry conditions and breeze, the children were surprised by the impact and their ability to make a fire. They thought that it would be simple! This led to some brilliant discussions on the difficulty of building a fire and keeping it going, especially when this grew in size for different reasons, including keeping a large group warm and cooking. We were very impressed with the children’s perseverance. We managed to make some fires!

Archery
Year 3 were very excited about their session with Mr Harris in archery. Mr Harris talked to them about the bows and arrows and how to use them. Children had different targets to aim for to get their food. They had to work out how to hold a bow and arrow and aim with enough force on the string. Some of our hunter-gatherers successfully met some targets and enjoyed reflecting on their success once they were back in the classroom!  

Gather around a fire!
Throughout the afternoon, a small fire was being made by Mrs Higgins and Mrs Kaur, and the children discussed the difficulty in keeping this going, especially if it was made for more than one purpose: for example, keeping warm for a large group and using the fire for cooking. Year 3 loved the opportunity to toast their marshmallows – a perfect addition to our day!

Homework
Maths – The children have been set a Battle on TTRockstars so they will be able to earn points for their class by practising their times tables! The class with the most points by next Wednesday will win!
Spelling – ‘ey’ sound worksheet.

As part of our RE unit focused on Judaism, we will be visiting a synagogue after half term. We have sent out letters with more information about this with a return slip.

We hope you have a lovely weekend,
The Year 3 Team