Stone Age to Iron Age: a Year 3 history quiz game: what children learn
Prehistoric Britain covers a huge stretch of time before the Romans arrived, when people did not write things down. Historians split it into the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, named after the materials people used for their tools. The Stone Age itself includes the Old Stone Age and Middle Stone Age, when people were hunter-gatherers, and the New Stone Age (the Neolithic), when farming began.
This game checks the big changes: the order of the ages, how people got their food, what bronze is made of, and famous sites such as Skara Brae, Stonehenge and Maiden Castle. Because there are no written records, almost everything we know comes from archaeology, so it is also a good topic for talking about evidence.
This topic covers a Key Stage 2 statutory requirement in the National Curriculum in England (Subject content): pupils should be taught about “changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age”. The programme of study sets this for the whole of Key Stage 2, so schools choose when to teach it; we have placed this game in Year 3 (ages 7–8).
There is no direct equivalent in the US Common Core State Standards.
How to play
Put the events on the timeline from the earliest to the latest, then press Check. Tap an event, then a space on the timeline, or drag it there. Each game has 3 rounds with no timer. When you press Check, the events in the right place stay and show their dates, and you get one more try for the others. You get a point for each event placed right first time. For a quicker go, choose Quick quiz: 10 multiple-choice questions in 150 seconds (choose Relaxed for more time).
Step by step
- Get the order right. Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, then the Romans. Make a long paper timeline and notice how long the Stone Age is compared with the others.
- Follow the food. Hunter-gatherers moved around to find food. Neolithic farmers grew crops and kept animals, so they could stay in one place and build villages such as Skara Brae.
- Follow the tools. Flint and stone, then bronze (copper mixed with tin), then iron. Each new material changed how people farmed and fought.
- Visit the sites. Look at pictures of Skara Brae, Stonehenge and Maiden Castle. What do they tell us about the people who built them?
- Think like an archaeologist. Ask: what objects would survive thousands of years? Stone and metal last; wood, cloth and food usually rot away.
Worked examples
Example 1: Bronze is made by mixing copper and which other metal?
Working: Bronze is an alloy, a mix of two metals. Copper is one; the other is a soft, silvery metal.
Answer: Tin.
Example 2: What big change happened in the Neolithic?
Working: “Neo” means new. In the New Stone Age, people stopped moving around and started growing food.
Answer: People started farming.
Example 3: What is a hill fort?
Working: Iron Age people built settlements on hilltops and dug huge ditches and banks around them.
Answer: A settlement on a hill with big banks and ditches.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
- Thinking dinosaurs lived in the Stone Age. Dinosaurs died out about 66 million years ago, long before any humans existed.
- Thinking the ages ended suddenly. Changes happened slowly. People kept using stone tools long after bronze arrived.
- Mixing up Stonehenge and hill forts. Stonehenge is a stone monument from the Stone Age and Bronze Age. Hill forts are Iron Age settlements with earth banks.
Activities to try at home
- Visit a local museum and look for flint tools, bronze objects and Iron Age finds.
- Make a model roundhouse with sticks, string and straw.
- Look at Skara Brae online and spot the stone beds and shelves.
- Print the game sheet and play it after reading about prehistoric Britain.
Ideas for the classroom
- Build a classroom timeline from the Stone Age to today, to scale if you have a long corridor.
- Give groups replica or pictured objects and ask them to work out which age each came from.
- Compare a hunter-gatherer day with a Neolithic farmer’s day in a drama activity.
- Use the quiz before and after the unit to show what pupils have learned.
Free printable game and worksheet
The free printable starts with a game sheet, such as a colour-by-answer picture, an answer maze or a secret-code joke, followed by a worksheet. Both use the same checked questions as the online game, and the answers are on the last page. Print it, or save it as a PDF from your browser’s print menu.
Open the free printable game and worksheet
Frequently asked questions
Why are there no exact dates in the game?
The ages started at different times in different places, and dates are estimates from archaeology. The game focuses on order and change, which is what the curriculum asks for.
Is Skara Brae older than Stonehenge?
Skara Brae was lived in from about 3180 to 2500 BC, before the big stones of Stonehenge were put up.
Which year group studies this?
Schools choose, but many teach Stone Age to Iron Age in Year 3 as the first Key Stage 2 history unit.