Half Term 1 –
Living In The Past: A Saxon
Settlement
CONCEPT: Do we want Marlins and Manatees to split into
Saxons and Vikings? Do interactive activities from two
perspectives, and to inform the concept of
invasion/settlement, and emphasise similarities between
these cultures, and their eventual integration into Engalond?
Week 1 – Introduction
Skills: Sense of Time and Priming
awareness
Who were the Saxons and Vikings? Study
12 thinking images, make topic webs,
mind maps with key images that we will
revisit over the term.
How long ago did the Saxons and
Vikings live here in England? Who was
here before the Saxons arrived?
Timeline activities.
Week 2 – Exploring Our New Home
Skills: Awareness of Change and
geography
Where did the Saxons come from and why
did they come here? Study maps and
GoogleEarth. Identify the Saxon
Kingdom you have settled on maps.
Where did the Saxons choose to settle
and why? Do a drama activity exploring
Suthsaex (Sussex), using picture cues.
What was different and similar about
Sussex in Saxon times? (Literacy Link:
Write a descriptive story about rowing
from Denmark and arriving in a new
land)
Weeks 3-7 – Create our Village
settlement
Skills: Research, notemaking,
reporting, DT & Science choosing and
using materials
Choosing a site for our Saxon village
settlement:
 Why did Saxons decide to settle
in certain places? Plan our own
settlement for our class and draw
a visual map.
 Name your settlement using AngloSaxon stems.
 Art/DT/Science: design and make
model houses using materials.
What was life like in a Saxon or
Viking village?:
 Draw and describe our ‘kin’ (Saxon
family), creating names, roles, and
jobs for them.
 Design the interior of our house on
paper and as a model, find out what
things were used for.
 Make a job list for our village.
Draw the workers on our village
visual maps. Role-play la day in
the life of the village, conduct
interviews with ‘villagers’.
 What can we learn about the Saxons
from artefacts and archaeology?
 Add information paragraphs/models
of houses to a village display
using research.
Write fact files and reports about
How to be a Saxon or Viking, using
our skills learned in Literacy.
Half Term 2 –
Two Tribes Go To War: Saxons and
Vikings
Week 1 – What were the Vikings really
like?
Skills: Using maps. Geographical
awareness. Business skills.
Experimental archaeology.
Who were the Vikings? Where did the
Vikings come from and why did they
choose to travel? Where did the
Vikings go on their journeys? Why did
they come to England? Were the Vikings
invaders or settlers? How did they get
here?

Write a letter to your Viking
family explaining why you are going to
set sail to raid/trade or settle other
lands.

Make a list of supplies that you
will need to survive and to
trade/raid.

Make a map of possible destinations
for your Viking voyage, and why you
want to go there.

Art/DT/Science Materials: Build
art-straw long ships and test.

Hold a mini raid!

Simulate a Viking trading game,
buying and selling goods to different
places, earning money in return.
Week 2 – The Vikings Come to Britain!
Skills: identify key events and
figures on a timeline, memorising
facts in long lists, introduce bias in
sources.
Present different tables with a
different raid or invasion by the
Vikings from 793 to 1006 (or perhaps
hold a different event from the
timeline each day to learn about),
and, as per Michael Gove’s erratic
pronouncements, identify the AngloSaxon king of the era and their
actions, and the consequences for
Saxons and Vikings. Make a timeline of
the events and test the SEN group
rigorously on the dates of Athelstan
and Edgar Aetheling. Hold a Witan
Council: who has done best out of the
Saxon Kings and the Vikings? King
Aella of Northumbria and King Edmund
of Anglia, Alfred, Athelstan,
Aethelred Unraed; Gudmun and Ivar the
Boneless, Eric Bloodaxe, or Swein and
Cnut? Make Top Trump Cards for each
leader to help compare their
achievements? Identify key victories
and defeats/new Viking settlements
with labels/posters around the
room/corridor. Will your class model
village be captured and renamed by the
Vikings?
Week 3 - How did the Vikings change
Britain?
Skills: Comparing the Saxons and
Vikings as people, discussion and
debating points of view, using
placename and linguistic evidence.
Hold a Thing/Witangemot meeting
between the Saxons and the Vikings.
What did Saxons and Vikings have in
common? Meet the other class and find
out what they have learnt. Learn
Viking and Saxon and have
conversations. What do the children
now think of the other culture? What
did the have in common? What new
things did the Vikings bring? How did
the Vikings actually help create
Engalond?
Investigate placenames to locate Saxon
and Viking areas, eg Danby mystery.
Week 4 1066: It’s the End of the World
As We Know It
Skills: Using simulations to make
judgements. Causes and consequences of
an event. Report writing. DT and
materials. Dance and fitness skills.
Prepare for the arrival of the
Normans: make name badges, make
swords, shields and helmets. Train in
sword and spear drill, shield wall.
Debate who should Be the new King –
Harold Godwinson, Harald Hardrada or
William of Normandy. Re-enact the
Battle of Stamford Bridge and the
Battle of Hastings! Write news reports
about the battle and its consequences
for Saxons and Normans.
Week 5 - A Great Warrior Is Buried!
Skills: How did people think and what
did they believe? Using artefacts to
form conclusions.
Tell the Ragnarok myth. Find objects
to bury with our great warrior in a
ship burial. Explain why each item is
significant. Find out what Saxons and
Vikings believed would happen when
they died. Perform a burial ceremony,
burning model ships. Write poems about
the Life of the warrior (based on
Egil’s Saga extract, The Wanderer and
The Battle of Maldon)
Weeks 6 & 7 Yule 1065: A Saxon and
Viking Christmas
Skills: Using textile materials,
investigating beliefs, finding links
between today and the past.
Prepare for a Saxon Christmas
celebration: boots of straw for
Sleipnir (Odin’s horse), Yulbocks
(straw goat decorations), presents
from the 13 naughty Icelandic Giant
(12 days of Christmas), mistletoe and
holly decorations etc. Feast in
honour of Father Yule (Odin, e.g.
Father Christmas), the Yule log. What
have we discovered about the origin of
our Christmas traditions?
NOT TAKING PLACRE THIS YEAR: TRIP: A Day In The Woods of Suthsaex!
Skills: Learning bushcraft skills, Using experimental archaeology to
understand the past, using outdoors as a writing stimulus.
Go on a trip to Ashdown Forest to take part in activities with
Wildwood Bushcraft. Build a shelter, light a fire with a strike and
flint, identify tress and plants. Write a story or report about our
day. Use experience to write a ‘How To Train A Saxon’ page.
ONGOING ACTIVITIES & LINKS:
Making a model Saxon or Viking village
– DT/SCIENCE
Making Viking longships and testing –
DT/SCIENCE
Saxon life research and
reports/paragraph labels - LITERACY
Myths and Legends Stories –
LITERACY/GR
Saxon/Norse - Language work
Waepontake/Witan meetings/Circle Time
- PSHE
Runes – LITERACY/WRITING
Name badges – Literacy/Language
T-shirt chainmail - ART
Making Helmets, swords and shields –
DT/CLUB
Kings Table boardgames – GOLDEN
TIME/CLUB
Dragon Art –ART/CLUB
What did ancient people believe?
Gods/Monsters fact files – LITERACY
Embroidery to make our own Saxon
‘tapestry’ -ART