Building Blocks of Prehistory:
Chapter of “My Story of the World”
Goal: Retell the story of where humans first “began,” how they
survived, and how changes in weather affected how early
humans lived.
Read both texts twice: once for meaning; and a second time to
write meaningful sentences.
Read pages 30-35; 38-41 in Our World. Read pages 4-9 in A
Little History of the World:
Africa:
Great Rift Valley:
Prehistoric:
Stone Age:
Paleolithic:
Hunter-Gatherer:
Prey:
Stone tools:
Ice Age:
Neanderthal:
Bronze Age:
Write a mini-chapter on prehistory made up two to five paragraphs.
Follow the Goal at the top.
Name: ______________
Date: _______________
Fill-in-the-Blank “Ladder” for Mini-Chapter on Prehistory for “My
Story of History”
Directions: Use this worksheet to help you get used to the process of
researching and writing your own mini-chapter.
First, read through the below fill-in-the-blank mini-chapter.
Second, read pages 5 through 9 in A Little History of the World, and
read pages 30 through 35, and pages 38 through 41 in Our World.
Third, use the same pages in both books to write sentences with/about
the assigned words. These are sentences that are: a) related to the
subject b) use information from the books c) satisfy the goal of the
mini-chapter.
Last, use information from the fill-in-the-blank sentences to construct
your own mini-chapter. Use all or none of the fill-in-the-blank
sentences. Add your own. Just make sure that it makes sense.
Goal: Retell the story of where humans first “began,” how they
survived, and how changes in weather affected how early humans
lived.
Sentences:
According to scientists, human beings started living in Africa
_________ about _2____ million years ago. The old human bones
found in Africa were found in an area in Tanzania called the __great
rift valley_________________. Prehistory is the time that comes
before _paleolithic _______, when there were no written _language
_________ and dates. The period of prehistory is called the Stone
Age, because during this time people __hides________ and
__wood_________ sticks and stones in order to make or invent
___fire_________.
The Old Stone Age is also ___paleothic__________. This time
period lasted from about ____70,000 years_________ to about
__10,000 b.c years ago. Prehistoric humans were called
______historian __________s, because they __grew______ plants
and vegetables and because they hunted _______animals______.
The animals hunted by hunter_-gatherers is called
their____________. These animals were important, because they
allowed early humans to survive________________.
Stone tools were made by a process called flanking___________,
during which prehistoric hunters ____sharp_______ pieces of stone
to give them a _knife like__________ edge.
Life during the Ice Age was hard for _____ice age_______
people, because of climatic changes. The temperature was
colder_________; the winters were __longer__________; and snow
was _deeper_____________.
Some human ancestors before modern humans were named
____Heidelberg___________, because their bones have been
discovered in the ___Heidelberg_________ valley in Germany. They
had a __jaw_______, low forehead.
About _6,000________ years ago, people discovered that could
use mix different types of __stones________ to make tools and
weapons and armor and jewelry