Stone Age to Iron Age — Year 3 Lesson Plan
National Curriculum: History KS2 — changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age
Overview
Pupils explore the changes in Britain from the late Neolithic through the Bronze Age and into the Iron Age. They examine how people lived, what they built, what they ate, and how technology changed, using archaeological evidence including Stonehenge, Skara Brae, and hillforts to understand life in prehistoric Britain.
Stone Age to Iron Age learning objectives
- Place the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age in chronological order.
- Describe key features of life in prehistoric Britain, including homes, food, and tools.
- Explain how technology changed from stone to bronze to iron and why this mattered.
- Use archaeological evidence to make inferences about prehistoric people.
Success criteria
- I can put the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age in order.
- I can describe homes, food and tools in prehistoric Britain.
- I can explain why changing from stone to bronze to iron mattered.
- I can make an inference from archaeological evidence.
Key Vocabulary
Suggested Lesson Structure
Show images of Stonehenge, a bronze axe, and an Iron Age hillfort reconstruction. Ask: what do you notice? When do you think these are from? Introduce the idea of prehistoric Britain — a time before writing, when we learn from objects left behind.
Guide pupils through the three periods in sequence. Stone Age: hunter-gatherers → settled farmers; homes at Skara Brae; Stonehenge as a ceremonial site. Bronze Age: first use of metal; trade networks; more complex society; burial mounds. Iron Age: stronger, sharper iron tools; hillforts for protection; Celtic tribes; farmers and warriors. For each: how do we know? (artefacts, structures, DNA evidence).
Pupils sort a set of artefact and settlement image cards into the three periods. Justify choices: 'I put this in the Iron Age because the tool is made of a darker, harder metal.' Discuss: how certain can we be? Why is it harder to know about prehistory than more recent periods?
Pupils complete a comparison table: three columns (Stone Age / Bronze Age / Iron Age), rows for homes, food, tools, and one thing that is special about each period. Annotate with one inference from archaeological evidence.
Ask: which period would you most have wanted to live in? Why? Discuss: why do historians call these 'ages' and not specific dates? Introduce the idea that change was gradual and overlapping, not sudden.
Support and extension for stone age to iron age
Support
- Use a picture timeline with the three ages colour-coded.
- Give artefact cards with a question prompt: “What was it used for? What does it tell us?”
- Provide sentence starters for inferences.
Extension
- Explain why we know less about the Stone Age than later periods.
- Compare Skara Brae with an Iron Age hillfort and explain what changed and why.
- Argue which change mattered most: farming, bronze or iron.
Check for understanding
Quick questions for the plenary or an exit ticket. Tap a question to see the answer.
1. Which came first: the Iron Age, Stone Age or Bronze Age?
Answer: The Stone Age, then the Bronze Age, then the Iron Age.
2. Why was iron better than bronze for tools?
Answer: Iron ore was easier to find and iron tools were strong, so more people could have them.
3. What is archaeology?
Answer: Studying the past by finding and examining objects and remains.
4. What was a hillfort?
Answer: An Iron Age settlement on a hill, protected by banks and ditches.
Resources you will need
- Timeline strip
- Images or replicas of flint tools, bronze and iron objects
- Images of Skara Brae, Stonehenge and a hillfort such as Maiden Castle
- Artefact analysis cards
Common Misconceptions
- Pupils often think all Stone Age people lived in caves — most later Stone Age people built wooden or stone structures.
- Thinking that the three ages happened one after another with clear boundaries — in reality the transitions were gradual and happened at different times in different parts of the world.
Prior Knowledge
Pupils should already be able to:
- Basic chronological understanding — awareness that some events happened a very long time ago.
- Familiarity with using sources of evidence to find out about the past.
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