This History video introduces teachers to a hands-on approach for helping pupils grasp the vast timeline of British prehistory. It highlights the challenge of understanding abstract time periods beyond recent history and offers a creative timeline activity using toilet paper rolls to physically represent the passage of time. By marking BC and AD and unrolling to visualise thousands of years, children can better comprehend how long humans have lived in Britain and when the Stone Age began.

This video is part of Kapow Primary’s History scheme – time. It supports teachers in developing pupils’ chronological understanding, introducing key historical concepts like BC and AD, and offering practical strategies to make deep time meaningful and memorable in the classroom.

History, Lower key stage 2, Year 3, British history 1: Would you prefer to have lived in the Stone Age, Bronze Age or Iron Age? Lesson 1: How long ago did prehistoric man live?