Rocks and Fossils activity 2: Create a Folkestone Prehistoric Landscape

Overview

Create a Folkestone prehistoric landscape!

Children research prehistoric plants and animals that lived in Kent.

Next, they explore the different media, styles and techniques artists have used to re-create prehistoric animals and landscapes in the past, and to assess how successful they think they were.

Finally using info and images from Learning from Objects they create a Folkestone prehistoric landscape or Great Chalk Sea seascape bursting with prehistoric life.

Learning Objectives

Increased knowledge and understanding of prehistoric animals and their habitats. Critical analysis of art.

Curriculum Links
KS1-2 Science (rocks and fossils, prehistoric animals)
KS1-2 Geography (how places change over time)
KS1-2 Art (Critical analysis of artists’ works. Create a landscape in a choice of media)

Image copyright: David Cross

Ask the class to research plants and animals that lived in Kent in the Cretaceous period.

Then to explore the different types of media, styles and techniques artists have used to re-create prehistoric animals and landscapes, and to assess how successful or realistic they think they’ve been.

Ask each child to choose one picture they like and discuss why they chose it. It may be useful to consider the following questions.

• How did the artist know what the prehistoric animals and landscape looked like?
• How much did they used their imagination?
• Have they included anything to make the picture more exciting?

Ask the children to create a prehistoric landscape or Great Chalk Sea seascape including dinosaurs, icthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, ammonites, sharks, turtles, sea urchins and prehistoric fish.

This could be done as individuals (using A3 paper), or working collaboratively in groups (one large A1 landscape per table).

Alternatively, different tables might focus on 6 different geological periods to show changes in Folkestone’s landscape and animal species over geological time:

Coal forests with tree ferns and giant minibeasts (Carboniferous)

Great Chalk Sea with icthyosaurs and plesiosaurs (Cretaceous)

Coastal zone with dinosaurs including Acanthopholis (Cretaceous)

Ice Age with mammoths and Mesolithic hunters (Pleistocene)

Inter-glacial warm period with elephants and hippos (Pleistocene)

Folkestone today tourists on the beach, fossil hunters (Holocene)

Learn with Objects links

Use Learn with Objects, Rocks and Fossils 1-8 for info and images.