Learning About Early People (Kindergarten 2013-14)

As part of our early people social studies unit last year, we learned all about how scientists dig in the ground to find things that help them learn about people long ago.  These can include tools, weapons, clothes and shelters.  We learned that scientists have to be very careful when digging these artifacts out of the ground, and learned that the process is called excavating!  Here we are using toothpicks as our tools to carefully excavate chocolate chips out of cookies!

We also learned about animals that lived during the time of early man.  One of these animals was the woolly mammoth!  The kindergarteners were so excited to learn that early man used these giant animals for many different things including eating their meat, using their tusks and bones as tools or for shelter and using their fur as warm clothing.  We even pieced a woolly mammoth skeleton back together like real scientists!

Not only did we learn about early people, but we ate like them too!  They didn't have all of our favorite foods like pizza, spaghetti and ice cream.  Instead, they ate what they found outside like fruits, root vegetables, nuts, seeds and meat that they hunted.  Here we are enjoying an Early People Feast complete with woolly mammoth meat - actually beef jerky :)

Finally, we traveled to the Cranbrook Science Center to complete our early people unit.  While we were there, we were able to see and touch different animal furs that early people would have used, excavate bones and artifacts from dig boxes using real scientist tools and finger paint with paints made from rocks and clay!

We had so much fun learning all about how early people lived!  Have you met our new pet woolly mammoth?