Tips for Teaching Early Man

Teaching early man to students holds a unique set of problems, to say the least.  Captivating your students with things that happened in the past is difficult, especially when it deals with the beginning of the human race.  As with teaching any subject, it is important to get your students involved while you are teaching early man, because, depending on your students learning style, hands on experience can be the best way to make information “stick”.  However, being an educator, you already know this, now you just need a few tips on teaching early man.  While it may be difficult sometimes, the following tips will make teaching early man easier and more interesting:

• A fun way of teaching early man is to have your students paint a story on a rock “cave art” and then explain what they painted and why they painted it.  It could be a memory or expressing a scene from something they learned about early man.  Then go on to talk about the famous cave art through out the world.
• When teaching early man, a great way to get your students thinking is for them to write an essay comparing what they believe to some of the myths or theories surrounding the creation of man and how man evolved.  You could even turn this into a debate between students, one debating one myth and another student debating another myth.  Have them research the facts and theories surrounding early man’s creation and then debate which one may be true.
• Teaching early man does not necessarily have to be consumed with the little details as you can have your students pretend they are part of this time in history and write a letter telling about their experiences, based on what they are learning.
• For the younger kids, such as 6th graders, teaching early man could be a project where your students build the tools that were found during this time in history.  In addition, your students could talk about how the tools were used.
• Another fun tip is to bring in some of the nuts, berries, or other such food that early man ate and let your students taste the food from the past.  Maybe show them how flour and bread was made, etc… You can never go wrong with bringing food into the lesson plans.
• One last idea to use when teaching early man is to allow your students to make clay pots and bowls.  This will show allow your students to experience a little of what early man experienced.

Teaching early man does not have to be difficult and if all else fails, try word association to help them remember all of the terms used during this time in history.  You could find words or phrases that are used today and associate them with the terminology that goes with early man history to help your students learn.  Allow your students to as many questions as needed, and just keep them involved in what you are teaching.  Bring history alive and your students will learn.