In Year 5, the children have been enjoying Cressida Cowell’s How to Train Your Dragon, complementing their Viking topic this half term - ‘Vikings: Raiders or Traders?’ Just like the initiates on the Isle of Berk, they decided to hold their very own Thor’sday Thursday celebrations; however, they decided to ditch the risk of exile that looms over the characters in the books!
Here is a report of the day from the Year 5 team.
Crafting Viking necklaces:
We focused on our driver ‘Creativity and Innovation’ whilst we worked hard on our own to make gorgeous necklaces. We didn’t need to melt our own metal (like the Vikings would have) because we used foil to provide a metallic effect. Carefully piercing the holes to thread the wool through, and cutting out jewels to cover our foiled shapes, was tricky, but great fun!
Lola: "I loved making the pendants because we made pretend gems and I love doing crafts!"
Battling on a Viking board game:
We learnt that Vikings would have carved these pieces out of wood, and played as often as we play our playstation now. We used ‘Find another Way’ to try and outwit our opponents. The challenge was to get our King to the corner. We can’t wait to play it at home.
Deciphering the runes
We worked well together to crack the code, identifying the appropriate runes and working out the hidden message. Did you know that the word law has its origins in the Norse language? We were surprised to have a glimpse into Viking law and order, although we aren’t so sure that relying on one Law Speaker to remember all of the agreed laws was the best idea...
Battle preparation
We’ve already started to realise that there was a lot more to the Vikings than bloody battles and riotous raids but we knew that being able to defend our land (or, yes, maybe attack someone else’s) would be handy anyway! We used our ‘Resourcefulness’ BLP to creatively imagine a battle as we brandished our weapons and became fierce warriors for the session.
Tilly: "I enjoyed it because it was really fun and I felt like a real Viking and I got out of breath!"
Viking Experts
We were lucky enough to finish off the day with a special interactive session with some experts from The Jorvik Viking Centre. We chatted to a Viking all about his life and helped dispel a few common myths. We then spoke to a real life archaeologist! She helped us understand just how we can use artefacts to find out about life in the Viking age. Lots of us asked superb questions to extend our understanding and we are now bursting with knowledge.
Katelyn: "I learnt that the oldest son inherited everything if their parents died and that was why sometimes the younger sibling had to go off and raid in other places so they could get money."
George B: "I didn’t know that Vikings were almost classed as adults when they were 12! I also didn’t know that they went to swamps to get their metal to craft with because the metal rose to the top."
Now we’re off to start plotting our own invasion rest after an awesome day!
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