This was once a sea animal and, although now extinct, is related to today’s octopus and squids. Now just the shell remains and has turned to rock.

Loftus born fossil hunter Lewis Hunton (1814 – 1838) was the first man to detail how ammonites differed in layers of the cliffs formed about 180 million of years ago in the Jurassic.

When Saxon Abbess Hilda founded Whitby Abbey in 657AD she is said to have cast snakes from the Abbey site and over the cliffs. The snakes curled and turned to ammonites on the rocks below. Now we know ammonites are not snakes turned to stone but fossilised relatives of squid.

In your first online session your Education Officer will introduce students to the object and get them thinking and talking about it.

You could follow that up with these activities from the ‘Object activity ideas’ pdf, on the Introduce your object page.

1. Looking closer
2. Developing vocabulary
3. Questioning and hypothesising

We suggest you try these activities on the Get Creative page

1. Vocabulary of the time
2. Let’s pretend!
3. Little Books

Imagine you are looking through a window into a Jurassic sea. Describe watching massive ammonites and dinosaur-like sea creatures moving in the water.

Museum name: Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum
Contact name: Jean Banwell
Phone number: 01287 642877
Email: jean@ironstonemuseum.co.uk

Learning from home? This download is full of ways to explore this object for students who can’t be in school.

Literacy Loans Home Learning Grid KS1 CIMM Cleveland Ammonite

This was once a sea animal and, although now extinct, is related to today’s octopus and squids. Now just the shell remains and has turned to rock.

Loftus born fossil hunter Lewis Hunton (1814 – 1838) was the first man to detail how ammonites differed in layers of the cliffs formed about 180 million of years ago in the Jurassic.

When Saxon Abbess Hilda founded Whitby Abbey in 657AD she is said to have cast snakes from the Abbey site and over the cliffs. The snakes curled and turned to ammonites on the rocks below. Now we know ammonites are not snakes turned to stone but fossilised relatives of squid.

In your first online session your Education Officer will introduce students to the object and get them thinking and talking about it.

You could follow that up with these activities from the ‘Object activity ideas’ pdf, on the Introduce your object page.

1. Looking closer
2. Developing vocabulary
3. Questioning and hypothesising

We suggest you try these activities on the Get Creative page

1. Interview with an object
2. Design a poster
3. Poetry and performance

Write a story about Lewis Hunton finding his first ammonite and realising it was the remains of a sea creature from millions of years ago.

Museum name: Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum
Contact name: Jean Banwell
Phone number: 01287 642877
Email: jean@ironstonemuseum.co.uk

Learning from home? This download is full of ways to explore this object for students who can’t be in school.

Literacy Loans Home Learning Grid KS2 CIMM Cleveland Ammonite

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