Life in the Old Stone Age was tough. People constantly move around to hunt for and gather food or else they would not survive. It was not until the New Stone Age or Neolithic Period that early humans began farming. To have a glimpse of what life have been for the early hunters-gatherers, kids can pretend to be hunters and gatherers and do the following activities:


Food Gathering Activity

Activity 1:

1. Print the stone age plants printable (subscription required) from twnkl.com; 


2. Cut the pictures and laminate for durability;
3. Hide the pictures around your house;
4. Have the kids find and gather the plants (pictures) that could have been gathered in the stone age era.
5. Have them read the information in the picture card to check whether it is edible. 
6. Ask them to sort those that are edible and those that are not. 

Questions to ask:

1. Which task was difficult?
2. What would have made it more difficult in the stone age?
3. How would time of the year affect the amount of food available?


Activity 2:

Take the kids for an outside stroll. Have the kids identify edible plants.


Animal Hunting Activity

1. Place pictures of animals (or toy animals) around your activity area. Do not make it too obvious where they are as the children have to hunt them.
2. Have the children take their stone age weapon of choice (paper stones, popsicle sticks).
3. Let the kids hit the target and collect. They only have three attempts.

Questions to ask:

1. Was the task difficult?
2. What would have made it more difficult in the stone age?
3. When do you think it would be easiest to hunt animals?
4. When would it be most difficult?
5. Do you think the animals would migrate?
6. Would this be a problem for stone-age hunters and gatherers?