Presentation of the Hand Chart

Age

6-9.

Materials

Black strip of cloth 10' x 1', the last half inch is red.

• The black is to give the sensorial impression of "nothingness.".
• The scale is 100,000 years per foot.
• The hand holding the stone tool is the approximate time that humans developed tools.
• The entire length of the strip represents the time humans have been on earth (1 million years).
• The red 1/2 inch is recorded history beginning about 4,000 BC.
  

Presentation

1. Roll out the black strip.
2. Say something like..."humans are now learning to walk, finding things,"...
3. "WAIT!" "Something has happened. It took humans all this time to develop tools."
4. "For a long time, humans continued to develop and change and after a long time, humans developed writing as represented by the small red strip."
5. Follow up.
6. Have discussions with the interested children on the following subjects: What does it mean to be human? How did the development of the hand influence the development of tool making and writing?
7. It is not necessary for them to arrive at any specific conclusion, merely to have considered the questions.