Stone Age homework for KS2

Looking for KS2 Stone Age homework inspiration? We've got you covered. Discover 6 ideas to keep pupils engaged in and out of the classroom.

One of the history topics in Key Stage 2 of the National Curriculum is "changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age".

In the first part of this topic, the Stone Age is split into three eras:

1. The Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age
2. The Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age
3. The Neolithic or New Stone Age
   
   

Across these three-and-a-bit million years, humans evolved from hunter-gatherers with basic flint tools to farmers, settlers and builders of monuments like Stonehenge.

Studying this period teaches children how archaeologists make claims based on incomplete evidence and artefacts. It helps them understand the vast timeline of human history and the differences – and similarities – between then and now.

Here at Stump Cross Caverns, we love learning and teaching about the Stone Age. That's why we provide free educational resources for KS2, welcome school trips on guided tours and undertake educational visits to classrooms.

If you're teaching the Stone Age at KS2, you're probably on the hunt (and gather) for homework ideas. Here are some ideas and resources to help you in your quest.



Stone Age homework ideas

1. Survival guide leaflet

Students can create a guide to surviving the Stone Age, filled with writing, drawings and fun facts about how we used to live.

Topics covered might include:

• How to find food
• How to make tools
• How to stay warm
• How to find or build a shelter
  
  

The leaflet could also reflect the team-based nature of Stone Age life.

This is a great homework idea to encourage students to put themselves in Stone Age shoes and think through the challenges our ancestors faced.

2. Write about Stone Age animals

Some of the animals alive in the Stone Age are still alive today. But others are extinct and can seem fantastical to modern eyes.

Cave lions, woolly mammoths, sabre-toothed cats and woolly rhinos – all can stir the imagination and inspire drawings, poems or short stories.

Alternatively, you could set students the task of creating fact files about Stone Age animals. What were their defining features, and how are they different from modern animals?

3. Tell a story in cave art

This can be an art activity or a writing exercise.

For art, students can make natural paint from berries, charcoal or chalk. Then they can draw a comic strip or story on brown paper so they look like prehistoric cave paintings. You can provide students with real-life pictorial examples or let them work from their imaginations.

And for writing, you can tie examples of cave art to storytelling. Cave paintings often record everyday events from Stone Age life. Students can be asked to tell the story in words depicted in a cave painting or think up their own.

4. Thinking about Stonehenge

Why was Stonehenge built? What was it for? These two questions alone can be turned into research activities, speculative writing, storytelling exercises and fact sheets about stone as a building material.

There's also a Stonehenge quiz on the BBC Bitesize website. This tests students on the information provided by the BBC, all of which corresponds to KS2.

5. Design a tool

For hundreds of thousands of years, humans had only stone tools to work with. Ask students to draw and label an axe or spear. What materials would they need to attach the stone to the wooden handle?

If you like, you could turn this design into an actual (safe!) tool when back in the classroom.

You could also get students to watch a short video about flint tools (here's one from the 10,000 Years BC YouTube channel). Give them one or two questions to think about afterwards. For instance, you could ask "What jobs did those tools do?" or "How are they different to tools today?"

6. Dinner is served

Stone Age people ate whatever they could hunt or gather. Their diet was rich in meat, wild plants and roots. Later on, they made nets for catching fish.

You can ask students to write a Stone Age recipe or a menu for a "Stone Age cafe". This will get students thinking about the differences between Stone Age and modern food and drink. What was missing from their diets?



Online resources

There are plenty of pre-written, printable worksheets and activity sheets online that fit the bill for KS2 Stone Age homework. Some sites to check out include:

• Twinkl
• Ks2History
• The TES
• BBC Bitesize
  
  

And on the Stump Cross Caverns website, you can find Key Stage 2 activities and online quizzes about the Stone Age.

These include activities on geology, Stone Age history, how climates change and prehistoric animals.

Led by Cavewoman and Rowan the Reindeer, these activities are written in line with the National Curriculum and can be tied in with a school trip to the caves.

Education at Stump Cross Caverns

Our educational activities at Stump Cross Caverns fall into three categories: free online resources, school trips and direct school visits.

Our caves are a prehistoric wonderland, bursting with stalagmites, stalactites and dazzling rock formations. Bring your class to the caves and we'll give them a guided tour along with hands-on activities that consolidate essential KS2 learning.

The trip can be followed up back at school with free resources from our website.

And if you can't come to us, we can come to you. Our resident Cavewoman or another member of our team will bring one of three workshops to your classroom: Stone Age Wonders, Fossil Discovery Dig and Cosmic Adventures.

All three workshops are designed to be in line with KS2 and feature fun hands-on activities as well as plenty of helpful information.

Interested? Simply make an enquiry and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.



Stump Cross Caverns is an ancient limestone cave system in the Yorkshire Dales. You'll find us on the B6265 between Pateley Bridge and Grassington. Here's a map.