PREHISTORIC JERSEY People and climate of the Ice Age Lesson plan Fact sheets Quiz sheets Story prompts Picture sheets SUPPORTED BY www.jerseyheritage.org People and climate of the Ice Age .............................................................................................................................................................................. People and climate of plan the Ice Age Lesson Introduction Lesson Objectives Tell children that they are going to be finding To understand that the Ice out about the very early humans that lived during Age people were different the Ice Age and the climate that they lived in. species. Explain about the different homo species of To understand there are two main early humans we study, early humans and what evidence there is for this. Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens. Discuss what a human is and the concept of To develop the appropriate evolution. use of historical terms. To understand that Jersey has Ask evidence of both Neanderthals How might people in the Ice Age have lived? and Early Homo Sapiens on the Where did they live? island. Who did they live with? How did they get food and what clothes did they Expected Outcomes wear? Why was it called the Ice Age? All children will be able to identify two different sets of What did the landscape look like? people living in the Ice Age. Explain that the artefacts found in Jersey are Most children will able to tools made by people and evidence left by the identify two different sets of early people which is how they can tell us about people living in the Ice Age and the Ice Age. describe their similarities and differences. Some children will describe two different sets of people Whole Class Work living in the Ice Age, describe Read and discuss the page ‘People of the their similarities and differences Ice Age’ which give an overview of the Ice Age and be able to reflect on the people and specifically the Neanderthals and evolution of people according Homo Sapiens. to the environment that they Discuss how the early humans would have live in. lived in the landscape and what they would have needed to survive colder temperatures, hostile Resources environments, disease and illness and predators. Photocopiable page ‘Introduction to the people of the Ice Age’ Pictures of La Cotte now and Group work / Paired work then (recreated) Ask the children to describe what makes a Pictures of landscape human - make a list in groups / pairs recreations Ask the children to complete the survive the Ice Age survival quiz Ice Age quiz together Reference pictures of Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens Story prompts .............................................................................................................................................................................. JERSEY HERITAGE supported by the ONE FOUNDATION People and climate of the Ice Age .............................................................................................................................................................................. plan Lesson Independent Work Review Ask the children to list their 5 things that would be Ask the children to present essential for them to live and their lists to each other. 5 things that they would ‘like’ to have in their life. Ask some children to Ask the children to write a story imagining that present their lists to the class. they are a child in the Ice Age, they should think The rest of the class should about waking up, what they would wear, eat and do listen to see if they have any during the day. feedback on the lists. Check the accuracy of the Ice Age survival quiz. Differentiation Support - lists can be basic and stories could be represented by a picture and write a caption. Challenge - more confident learners should produce an exciting narrative and include thoughtful historically accurate details and also be able to compare. Ask what are the main differences between the three stages. .............................................................................................................................................................................. JERSEY HERITAGE supported by the ONE FOUNDATION People and climate of the Ice Age .............................................................................................................................................................................. The first people Neanderthals ‘People’ appeared on the earth around and Homo 6 million years ago when the first apes stood upright, walked on two legs and Fact Sapiens sheet used tools. These people were very different from what type of people we are Both Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens are today. That is because over the millions of closely associated with the Ice Age and years, people evolved. lived during this time. There is evidence that they lived along side each other Evolution means that biology (people, at some point. The Neanderthals (and animals or plants) can change and adapt, other Homo species) eventually became usually according to the climate and extinct, but Homo Sapiens survived and circumstances that the people or animals prospered. are surrounded by. How do we know this? Evolution has meant that the first ‘people’ have evolved into distinct species over We know more about Neanderthals than millions of years. any other extinct human group, because many more Neanderthal bones have Who are these people and how been found than other extinct humans. do we know about them? In Jersey we have found 13 Neanderthal teeth and part of a skull - this is an There are different ‘family’ groups amazing find as hardly any other including, Ardipithicus, Paranthopus, Neanderthal teeth have ever been found. Australopithicus and Homo. We know about the Homo Sapiens who We have evidence of the people from their lived in the Ice Age because we have bones that have been discovered and the found their bones and tools that they tools that they left behind. used and with science have been able to date them so we know how old they Whilst the first three groups are the oldest, are. We have found what is probably a we still don’t know that much about them campsite at Les Varines in St Saviour so we mostly study the Homo species. dating to around 14,500 years ago with nearly 5,000 stone tools made by the In the Homo Species, we find: earliest modern humans. At this site Homo Rudolfensis, Homo Florensesiis, Homo they also found some plaquettes, small Habilis, Homo Erectus, Homo Ergaster, stones with markings on them which Homo Antecessor, Homo Heidelbergenisis, archaeologists think may be the oldest Homo Neanderthalis and Homo Sapiens. pieces of art found in the British Isles. Homo Antecessor is the first species How similar are they? that was found outside of Africa and in There are some big differences between Western Europe. These species made and the Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens, but used tools and ate animals. not as many as you might think! However, the biggest change is the Both species: evolution into the Homo Neanderthalis were successful hunters species. The Neanderthals were the first able to survived in the harsh to use fire and make tools for hunting and environment of the Ice Age living. made tools adapted to the climate lived in Jersey .............................................................................................................................................................................. JERSEY HERITAGE supported by the ONE FOUNDATION People and climate of the Ice Age .............................................................................................................................................................................. The Ice Age Climate 450,000 years ago - There was a land bridge which connected France and Britain and meant that the Channel Islands were all one piece of Fact land with lots of rivers. People and animals sheet could walk across the land. Because it was so cold, the ice even went as far south as London. But then the climate started to warm up and there was an enormous flood creating a lake and then a river which would become so big it eventually turned into the English Channel. The seas rose creating new landscapes and islands which made Jersey and Northern France very important places for the Neanderthals to live. 180,000 years ago Extreme cold wiped out 125,000 many animals across years ago north west Europe Temperature and sea level rose very 180,000 years ago. quickly cutting Jersey off as an island, a deer population was stranded in Jersey when the sea level rose and it became an island. The deer adapted to their new environment by shrinking so that they needed less food, which was harder to fins in a smaller place. Neanderthals did not live in Jersey at this time. The Island could 60,000 not provide was they needed to survive. years ago The climate changed again and got colder meaning the Neanderthals returned to live in Jersey, but they had to share the space with fierce competitors like hyena, cave 40,000 lion and wolf, and Homo Sapiens. years ago This is our last dated evidence of Neanderthals living in Jersey. 14,000 years ago Some of the first modern humans in Jersey might have lived at Les Varines in St Saviour, on a possible campsite where over 5,000 stone tools have been found. .............................................................................................................................................................................. JERSEY HERITAGE supported by the ONE FOUNDATION People and climate of the Ice Age .............................................................................................................................................................................