Stone Age Living
8th July 2015
Year 3 had fun in the forest this week at Compton Verney. Each class visited their forest school in support of our topic on the Stone Age. The children took part in a range of activities designed to give us a taste of life in the Mesolithic Era including digging and crushing mud and charcoal to use in 'cave' painting, lashing branches together to make shelters and mixing 'wattle and daub' to form walls - with real poo (or so the children believed!). They used flints to make sparks for fire-lighting and made bread dough using just flour and water, which they later attempted to cook over an open fire.
A favourite activity for many was making clay pots using natural items the children found around them as tools. One young man cleverly used a smooth branch as a rolling pin whilst others used sticks for piercing holes and drawing patterns or leaves for making decorative impressions. There were some wonderful designs and they made a lovely memory of the day as the children were able to take them home at the end of the day.
Vix showed us an amazing tree which was struck by lightning some years ago splitting it and forming a hollow inside. The children were able to sit inside imagining that they had been caught out in the open and were forced to take emergency shelter from predators.
To round off the day we sat around an open fire lit by our guide Vix with a fire striker. 3H got a taste of the difficulties of the Mesolithic on their visit when their fire went out due to the rain but after we'd had a go at seeing how many children could fit safely into the shelter they had built (it was 19 by the way), the rain cleared and we were able to return to the fire for the children to cook their 'bread' on the end of a stick. We had a taste of some that was made earlier - it was very tough and really made us appreciate supermarket bread!
Both days were wonderful fun. The grounds of Compton Verney are very beautiful and we enjoyed walking around and visiting the icehouse, cows and crossing the beautiful lake and bridge. Not Stone Age at all but a wonderful addition to our visit.