Children's thinking in archaeology

Primary History article

By Hilary Cooper, published 18th July 2009

Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.

Young children enjoy prehistory Tactile, Physical and Enactive engagement with archaeological remains stimulates, excites and promotes children's logical, imaginative, creative and deductive thinking. Through archaeology there are infinite opportunities for ‘reasonable guesses' about sources and what they tell us about their owners. Sites where Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age artefacts have been found are widespread in Britain (Ancient Britain Ordnance Survey, 2005). In these areas ‘The Stone

Ages' are an excellent starting point for a local study about 'a way of life in the distant past' at Key Stage 1 (DfEE /QCA 1999) or lead into a local focus on Bronze/Iron Age and Roman Britain. ‘Considering the lives of people beyond 3,000 years ago is about understanding our lives in a naturalistic sense, being able to understand the actual things that sustain us' (Moore 2004)...

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