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FREE TEACHER STORY UNIT · KS2

Stone Age story lesson for KS2

A warm, curious class story for the Stone Age to Iron Age topic in Years 3 and 4. Our hero helps Bryn’s settlement find flint, mend a roundhouse and paint a cave wall before winter, then the story jumps to an archaeologist today. Children write an information report with a “How do we know?” fact.

When to use it
Any time during your Stone Age to Iron Age topic in Years 3 and 4.
Story world
Flint Valley
Subject focus
History · Stone Age to Iron Age
Suggested story settings
Genre: Historical · Length: 2 chapters · Time: 10–15 minutes

Story feel: Wonder & discovery. Story shape: Problem to solve.

About this unit

This unit brings prehistoric Britain to life through one settlement getting ready for winter. Children see daily life (gathering food, shaping flint, building and mending roundhouses, painting) through Bryn’s eyes, and meet the big question of the topic: how do we know about people who never wrote anything down?

The story keeps to what children can picture and check. It ends with a jump to the present day, when an archaeologist finds one of Bryn’s flint tools, which sets up the report task and its “How do we know?” fact.

KS2 (Years 3 to 4): The Flint Finders

Learning objective

Describe daily life in the Stone Age and explain how archaeologists know about it.

Talk questions

  1. What did Bryn’s settlement need to do to get ready for winter?
  2. How can an archaeologist learn about people who never wrote anything down?

Writing task

Write an information report about life in a Stone Age settlement, with a heading for homes, food and tools, and one ‘How do we know?’ fact.

Suggested story settings: Genre: Historical · Length: 2 chapters · Time: 10–15 minutes

The story brief

What the class story is asked to do. “Our hero” is the character your class chooses.

A Stone Age adventure for older primary readers. Our hero meets Bryn, a young hunter-gatherer, whose settlement must get ready for winter. Together they search the chalk hills for flint, learn how to shape it into tools, help mend the roof of a roundhouse and paint a picture on a cave wall to tell others what they found. Show daily life accurately and simply: gathering, making, sharing, keeping warm. Keep it warm, curious and calm, with no hunting scenes in detail and no danger. End by a fire in the roundhouse, and then jump forward to an archaeologist today finding one of the flint tools.

Word bank

prehistoric
from the time before people wrote things down
hunter-gatherer
someone who finds food by hunting and gathering plants
flint
a hard stone that can be shaped into tools
settlement
a place where people make their homes
archaeologist
a person who digs up and studies objects from the past

Text-type features: information report

Purpose: to tell the reader facts about a subject. Plan it with the free information report plan template.

Years 3 and 4

  • A title and an introduction
  • Headings and sub-headings
  • Paragraphs grouped by topic
  • Present tense and facts
  • Technical words

Years 5 and 6

  • An introduction that sorts the subject
  • Headings, sub-headings and other layout devices
  • Paragraphs that group facts
  • Formal, impersonal voice
  • Technical words and a glossary

National Curriculum statements

  • “retrieve and record information from non-fiction”

    Years 3 and 4, Reading – comprehension (statutory)

  • “in non-narrative material, using simple organisational devices [for example, headings and sub-headings]”

    Years 3 and 4, Writing – composition (statutory)

  • “organising paragraphs around a theme”

    Years 3 and 4, Writing – composition (statutory)

  • “changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age”

    Key stage 2, History (statutory)

Sample opening · KS2

A sample written for this page to show the brief in action. It is not the story Litsee writes for your class.

The first thing our hero noticed was the smell: woodsmoke, wet grass and something cooking. The second was a boy about their age, crouched by a stream, turning a grey stone over in his hands.

“Flint,” said the boy, as if that explained everything. He tapped it against another stone, and a thin, sharp flake broke away. “I’m Bryn. Are you from the next valley?”

Behind him, on a gentle slope, stood three round houses with cone-shaped roofs of thatch. Smoke drifted out through the top of each one. Children were carrying bundles of sticks, and a woman was stretching a hide between two poles.

“Winter’s coming,” said Bryn. “We need more flint for tools, more wood for the fires, and the big roundhouse roof has a hole in it.” He held out a second stone. “Want to help?”

Model text (WAGOLL)

A model answer to the writing task, pitched at Year 4, written for this page. Read it with the class and find where it meets each success criterion.

Life in a Stone Age Settlement

Homes: Many Stone Age families in Britain lived in roundhouses. These had walls of wood and mud and a cone-shaped roof of thatch, with a fire in the middle to keep everyone warm.

Food: Early people were hunter-gatherers. They collected berries, nuts and roots, and later many groups began to farm, growing crops and keeping animals.

Tools: Flint was very important because it could be shaped into sharp blades, scrapers and arrowheads. People chipped away at it with other stones until it had the right edge.

How do we know? Archaeologists have found flint tools, the post holes where roundhouse walls once stood and paintings on cave walls. Because nobody wrote anything down, these objects are our best clues.

What makes it good

  • Homes: Headings organise the report so the reader can find each topic.
  • because it could be shaped into sharp blades Explains why a fact matters, not only what it is.
  • Because nobody wrote anything down, these objects are our best clues. Answers the big question of the topic: how do we know?

By year group

Year 3

Grammar focus: Paragraphs and headings

Year 4

Grammar focus: Expanded noun phrases

Behind him, on a gentle slope, stood three round houses with cone-shaped roofs of thatch.

A week of lessons

  1. Lesson 1

    Hook

    • Pass round a flint (or a picture of a flint tool) in a paper bag. Children feel it without looking and guess what it was used for before you reveal it.
    • Talk: What did Bryn’s settlement need to do to get ready for winter?

  2. Lesson 2

    Plan

    • Talk: How can an archaeologist learn about people who never wrote anything down?
    • Words: prehistoric, hunter-gatherer, flint, settlement, archaeologist.

  3. Lesson 3

    Draft

    • Write: Write an information report about life in a Stone Age settlement, with a heading for homes, food and tools, and one ‘How do we know?’ fact.

  4. Lesson 4

    Edit

    • Grammar focus. Paragraphs and headings

  5. Lesson 5

    Publish

    • Make a class “museum guide” of the reports, displayed beside any objects, pictures or replicas you have.
The printed plan adds the planning frame and the full steps for each lesson.

Support, core and stretch sheets

Support

Write three sentences about a Stone Age settlement, one under each heading: homes, food and tools.

Core

Write an information report about life in a Stone Age settlement, with a heading for homes, food and tools, and one ‘How do we know?’ fact.

Stretch

Add a “We know / We think” box to your report, sorting at least two facts into each side.

Vocabulary mat

One A4 page for every table: the word bank with its meanings, sentence stems, useful words and grammar words.

Teaching notes

Bring in real or replica flint and other natural materials if you can. Children who have held a flint flake understand why it mattered far better than children who have only seen pictures.

Use the jump to the present day to teach the difference between what we know and what we work out. A flint tool, a post hole or a cave painting is evidence; deciding what it was used for is an interpretation. Ask children to sort statements into “we know” and “we think”.

The report task suits headings and paragraphs. Model one section together (homes: roundhouses, thatch, a fire in the middle) before children write the others.

Printable lesson sheet

One A4 page, ready for your planning folder: the story title, objective, story settings, talk questions, writing task, word bank with meanings, success criteria, curriculum statements and the sample opening to read aloud. Printing this page prints only that sheet.

About this page

How it works · Sources

Sources

The curriculum quotations are copied word for word from these documents. Dates were checked on 29 October 2026.

About this page

Built from Litsee’s curriculum data. The topic words and their meanings, the year groups and the history, geography and science statements come from the topic data in the Litsee app, quoted word for word from the Department for Education’s documents; the text-type features and English quotations come from the app’s curriculum data. The story briefs, objectives, questions, tasks, sample openings, model texts and teaching notes were written for this page. Ideas or corrections? Email info@litsee.com.

Last updated: .

Questions parents and teachers ask

Which year group is the Stone Age unit for?

Years 3 and 4, where most schools teach the changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age.

Does the story include hunting?

Only in passing. The story focuses on gathering, making tools, building, painting and keeping warm, and nothing is frightening.

Is there a word bank for the Stone Age?

Yes. The Stone Age word bank has the topic words with child-friendly meanings, more nouns, verbs and adjectives, and a printable word mat.

Run this as a live class story in Litsee

In Litsee, a seasonal brief like this becomes an illustrated, narrated class story. You preview the first chapter before reading it with your class, and the class chooses what happens next together.

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Stone Age story unit · KS2 (Years 3 to 4)

The Flint Finders

Learning objective: Describe daily life in the Stone Age and explain how archaeologists know about it.

Suggested story settings: Genre: Historical · Length: 2 chapters · Time: 10–15 minutes · Story world: Flint Valley

Talk questions

  1. What did Bryn’s settlement need to do to get ready for winter?
  2. How can an archaeologist learn about people who never wrote anything down?

Writing task

Write an information report about life in a Stone Age settlement, with a heading for homes, food and tools, and one ‘How do we know?’ fact.

Word bank

prehistoric
from the time before people wrote things down
hunter-gatherer
someone who finds food by hunting and gathering plants
flint
a hard stone that can be shaped into tools
settlement
a place where people make their homes
archaeologist
a person who digs up and studies objects from the past

Success criteria (information report)

Years 3 and 4: I can write an introduction. I can use headings and paragraphs. I can use technical words.

Years 5 and 6: I can group facts in paragraphs. I can use layout devices. I can write in a formal voice.

National Curriculum statements

  • “retrieve and record information from non-fiction” (Years 3 and 4, Reading – comprehension (statutory))
  • “in non-narrative material, using simple organisational devices [for example, headings and sub-headings]” (Years 3 and 4, Writing – composition (statutory))
  • “organising paragraphs around a theme” (Years 3 and 4, Writing – composition (statutory))
  • “changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age” (Key stage 2, History (statutory))

Sample opening (written for litsee.com, to read aloud)

The first thing our hero noticed was the smell: woodsmoke, wet grass and something cooking. The second was a boy about their age, crouched by a stream, turning a grey stone over in his hands.

“Flint,” said the boy, as if that explained everything. He tapped it against another stone, and a thin, sharp flake broke away. “I’m Bryn. Are you from the next valley?”

Behind him, on a gentle slope, stood three round houses with cone-shaped roofs of thatch. Smoke drifted out through the top of each one. Children were carrying bundles of sticks, and a woman was stretching a hide between two poles.

“Winter’s coming,” said Bryn. “We need more flint for tools, more wood for the fires, and the big roundhouse roof has a hole in it.” He held out a second stone. “Want to help?”

Notes

Free from litsee.com/teachers/story-units/stone-age

Try it in LitseeYour child creates the hero, picks the world and chooses what happens next, in an illustrated story that is read aloud.Start your free trialUse it in classRead an illustrated, narrated story together on the whiteboard, and let the class choose what happens next.Start a free classroom trialSee Litsee for schools