Stone Age
The Stone Age is the name given to the earliest period of human culture when stone tools were first used. In Europe, the Stone Age was around 40.000 - 5.000 years ago.
This is a Bilingual History lesson for 2nd year learners (Klasse 6).
- The input will be an English video or a short text.
- The outcome may be a quiz, a worksheet or a poster.
This will be in English but only the facts matter - language mistakes aren't counted!
First Man
- Watch the video.
- Read the text.
- Have you understood everything? Do the interactive Quizzes!
For most of the Stone Age, humans lived as hunter-gatherers. This means that instead of growing their food, they went out and found it. They hunted and fished for food, especially during the Ice Age.
Later, they learned to gather edible plants, collect eggs from birds’ nests, and, for a sweet treat, they took honey from wild bee hives. What hunter-gatherers ate depended on what they could find each season, eating fruit and berries when they ripened and eating meat from animals when they were most plentiful.
They travelled from place to place in search of the best hunting grounds, living in temporary shelters. Humans living by the sea, rivers, or lakes used barbed spears to catch fish and, later, traps to catch eels, crabs, and lobsters.
Stone Age vs. Ice Age
Click the correct answer! Be careful - more than one answer can be correct
Why is it called The Stone Age? (!Because people used a calendar made of stone. ) (Because that's when people started making tools out of stone.) (!Because people lived in stone houses.)
In the Ice Age (!people moved to warmer areas) (people left Africa because it was too dry) (people moved to Europe to find food) (!people lived in ice caves)
What material were the first tools made from? (Stones and bones) (!Stones and metal) (!Bones and glass) (!Metal and wood)
What was the job of the female during the Stone age? (!Hunting) (Gathering plants) (Taking care of kids)
How did the early caveman get fire? (!Zippo & Matches) (Rubbing rocks together) (Lightning) (!Volcanoes)
Hunter-Gatherers
What did they eat?
 |
berries |
 |
nuts |
 |
fruit |
 |
roots |
 |
beetles and other insects |
 |
eggs from bird's nests |
 |
corns from long grasses |
How long would you have survived in the Stone Age?
About 100.000 years ago, humans made stone tools and hunted mammoths, bison and deer. They collected berries and consumed plants, roots and grasses that most modern humans have no idea you can eat. As they laid to rest in their shelters and caves, they probably felt pretty fearful when a saber-toothed tiger, a bear or a deadly snake might strike. It perhaps comes as no surprise that humans reached, on average, just to age 25 during this era.[1]
Agriculture
- Watch the video.
- Do the interactive quizzes on farming.
Click the correct answer! Be careful - more than one answer can be correct
What does agriculture mean? (!Fishing) (Farming) (!Hunting) (!Making tools)
What animals did the new Stone age have on their farms? (!Turtles) (Goats) (Sheep) (!All of the Above)
Farming was a good thing because … (It helped them stay alive longer) (It let them stay in one place) (It gave them plenty of food)
Where did the NEW Stone age people live? (!Caves) (Villages) (!Tee-pees) (!Under Cliffs)
The Rise of Agriculture
Why did farming start in the first place? Use Drag & Drop to put the words in the gaps.
10.000 years ago people started planting fruit trees and vegetables next to their camps. In the fertile crescent they collected corn. Some of the corn was put into the earth and grew. After some months the new corn was harvested and baked into bread.
Cultivating crops was not the only way farming took place, though - the Neolithic people also caught animals like sheep and cattle. Stone Age people raised lambs and calves which became tame and domesticated over time. We call the cumulative of all of these things (the preparation of soil, planting crops, and raising animals) agriculture
Further Exercises
Tools and Weapons
Stone Age people and the Aborigines in Australia didn't use bow and arrows. They threw spears. With a spear thrower you can throw farther and more forcefully.
- ↑ How Long Would You Have Survived in the Stone Age? (Howstuffworks.com)
