Human fossils

Topics Year 4/5

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Objectives

Science

Recognise that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about living things that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago.
Identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution.

History

Children will understand that what we know is constructed from several different sources (fossils, footprints, genetic clock).

Lesson Planning

Learn about four key human fossils and put them on a timeline.

Teaching Outcomes:

To create a timeline with details of early human fossils on it.
To write some milestones of human development on the timeline.

Children will:

Address research questions.
Put some human achievements, milestones and fossils on a timeline.
Explain what different types of evidence there are for these.
Start to think about how different humans species were adapted for their environments.

Planning

Provided Resources

Research questions
Timeline template

You Will Need

String across the classroom to pin events onto to make a timeline

Weblinks

Flash game about 'Lucy', an Australopithecus afarensis fossil from Kenya from pbs.org
Information on Lucy from www.nhm.ac.uk
Flash game exploring the excavations of Homo erectus in the Rift Valley in Kenya from humanorigins.si.edu
Information about Homo erectus from www.nhm.ac.uk
'The Hobbit' skeleton found on Flores island, Indonesia from humanorigins.si.edu
Information on the Hobbit skeleton from iflscience.com
The earliest modern human in Europe from Romania from bbc.co.uk
Timeline of human achievements from humanorigins.si.edu