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Prehistoric Britain • Year 3 PREHISTORIC BRITAIN REACH OUT YEAR 3 name: class: Knowledge Organiser • Prehistoric Britain • Year 3 Map of Europe during the Ice Age Map of Northern Europe today Prehistoric Animals Vocabulary Homo sapiens The scientific name for humans. The Ice Age A very long period when the earth was extremely cold. Woolly Woolly Elk Palaeolithic The early stone age. Humans Mammoth Rhinoceros Era used very basic tools. (Extinct) (Extinct) (Extant) Mesolithic Era The middle stone age. Humans perfected their tools. Neolithic Era The new stone age. Humans Stone Age Tools began farming. Neanderthals Another type of human. They are now extinct. Extinct Animals that used to be alive but now they are all dead. Torc A piece of bronze jewellery. Bronze The first metal humans used. Iron A metal that is harder and Hand axe Hammer stone Spear stronger than Bronze. 2 Lesson Question You will learn Learning Review How do we know • The age of the Earth and when life about life in the began. Stone Age? • How scientists learn about this period. • How people travelled across the world. Which animals lived • Some of the creatures that were alive during the Ice Age? during the Ice Age. • The difference between extant and extinct. What were the • The three different Stone Ages. different periods in • How life developed through those the Stone Age? periods. What was life like • What a nomadic life-style was life. in a Stone Age • The impact on people of building settlement? permanent homes. How did the Bronze • How bronze is made. Age change how • The case study of the Beaker People. humans lived? Who were the Celts, • Why the Celts used iron. and what was life • What impact iron had on the lives of the like for them? Celts. 3 Lesson 01 How do we know about life in the Stone Age? 1. How long ago was the Stone Age? Term Definition Evolve When an animal or plant changes gradually over time, allowing it to survive in its environment. Prehistory The period of history before people wrote anything down, because writing had not yet been invented. Archaeologist A person who studies the past by looking carefully at objects from a very long time ago which have been buried. Palaeontologist A person who studies the past by looking carefully at fossils Timeline A line showing when different events took place, to help us see what came first and what came later. Artefacts Any object made by a human, which can help us learn about the past. Life on Earth Planet Earth is over four and a half billion years old (that’s 4,500,000,000 years ago). After about a billion years, life appeared on earth. The first living things were tiny microbes deep in the ocean. Then, over billions of years, larger, more complex plants and creatures evolved. Most animals began to appear suddenly about 540 million years ago, in an event called the Cambrian Explosion. Dinosaurs roamed for millions of years, until they became extinct about 65 million years ago. After this, mammals could safely live and spread across the earth. 4 • Lesson 1 2. Watch the video about life on earth with your partner. Put these different events in order on the timeline. Extension: draw a picture of each event. • The • Cambrian • Dinosaurs • Simple life and • Microbes, dinosaurs Explosion: lots become plants slowly the first life, rule the of different extinct and evolve in the appears on earth. animals and the age of oceans. Microbes, earth. plants appear. the mammals the first life, begins. appears on earth. 3.5 billion years ago 3.5 billion years ago to 600 million years ago 600 million years ago 250 million years ago to 65 million years ago 65 million years ago Humans didn’t suddenly appear on earth. They began to evolve from apes over millions of years. The earliest humans looked more like apes than humans. However, they began to evolve to have larger brains, to walk upright, and have better control with their hands. There were lots of different species of humans, but only one type survived to today. Us. Our species is called homo sapiens, and we first evolved about 300,000 years ago. Lesson 1 • 5 3. Look at these different types of humans. How have humans changed over time? Homo Homo habilis Homo erectus Homo Homo sapiens Australopithecus heidelbergensis 4 million years 2.8 million years 1.9 million years 0.6 million years 0.3 million ago ago ago ago years ago Different scientists have helped us to learn more about early humans. • Palaeontologists study fossils: special rocks which show the imprint of skeletons and plants. • Archaeologists study artefacts that were made by humans and have been buried. These scientists find clues from the past. These clues tell us where humans were at different times, and how they might have This is a fossil of a seymouria, one of the behaved. Using these clues, it is thought earliest creatures to leave the sea and live that about 150,000 years ago, homo on land. It is about 280 million years old. sapiens began to travel out of Africa and into the middle east and then Europe. 4. What is the name of a scientist who studies fossils? • Archaeologist • Palaeontologist. 6 • Lesson 1 5. Point to the different continents on the map: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Australasia This map shows when different species of humans left Africa and began to live in different parts of the world. The numbers show how many years ago the humans travelled. 6. Complete these sentences using information from throughout the lesson. Homo sapiens left east Africa and travelled _______________________________________. There were different human species living 200,000 years ago, including homo sapiens, _____________________ and ___________________. About 70,000 years ago, homo erectus made it to _______________________________. Homo sapiens first arrived in Britain around ___________________________ years ago. Around 50,000 years ago, humans first arrived in _______________________. Lesson 1 • 7 Lesson 02 Which animals lived during the Ice Age? Retrieval Practice 1. Name one type of early human species: homo _____________________________ 2. What was the name of the event when lots and lots of animals suddenly appeared on earth? a. The Cambrian Explosion b The Mesolithic Era c. Homo sapiens 3. What is the name of a scientist who studies artefacts made by humans which have been buried under ground? a. Palaeontologists b. Archaeologists c. Artefactorists d. Cambrianologists 4. Which continent to scientists think humans first evolved from. a. Europe b. Asia c. North America d. Africa 5. What is the name of a special rock which has the imprint of a skeleton in in? a. Artefact b. Seymouria c. Fossil d. Microbe 8 • Lesson 2 Term Definition Ice Age The long period of time when the earth was much colder, and covered in huge sheets of ice. Glaciers Another name for huge sheets of ice. Extinct When there are no more of a species left. They have all died out. Extant When a species still exists and is alive today. Ivory The horns or tusks of animals, including elephants and rhinos. A frozen planet These glaciers covered most of Britain, For most of the stone age, the world Europe, parts of North America, South looked very different to how it is today. America and Australia, as well as other Early humans were living in an Ice Age. The places. The most recent ice age began world was much colder than it is now. There about 1.5 million years ago and ended were huge sheets of ice, called glaciers, about 15,000 years ago. covering lots of land. 1.Watch the video, and then draw the ice sheets on this map of the world. Lesson 2 • 9 During this ice age, there were some This creature was a member of the elephant incredible beasts which roamed the earth. family. It was larger than elephants today, These animals had adapted to the cold and was covered in fur. Woolly mammoths conditions, and some lived in Britain. Some went extinct about 4,000 years ago. of these animals, like elk, are extant, which Scientists have found frozen bodies of means that they are still alive today. Other woolly mammoths. species went extinct, which means that there are none of them left alive today. It 3. Scientists think that they might be wasn’t only animals that went extinct. All of able to breed new woolly the kinds of humans except for our species, mammoths by taking their DNA homo sapiens, were extinct by the end of and putting it into a modern the ice age. Scientists disagree about what elephant. Do you think that they caused this. should do this? 2. What could cause a species to Humans had to work together to hunt go extinct? Give as many woolly mammoths, it would have been reasons as you can think of. very dangerous. They used spears, and perhaps bows and arrows. Humans would _____________________________________ need to make a plan and communicate _____________________________________ instructions, something other animals _____________________________________ couldn’t do. _____________________________________ If a woolly mammoth was killed, humans would be able to use the ivory tusks for tools, the skin for clothes, and have plenty There were many animals living in Britain of fat and meat to eat. However, one during the ice age which are now extinct. wrong move and the mammoth would easily kill a human with a swipe of its tusks. Woolly Mammoth 4. Would hunting a woolly mammoth have been worth the risk? Why/why not? Advantages Disdvantages 10 • Lesson 2 5.
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