Re:DGPS03062014
Year 3 and 4 Summer 2014 Viking Learning.
Dear Parents/Carers,
Welcome to the last half-term of the year. It was an aim of ours from the
start that we would try to involve more off-site learning for the children. I hope our
two recent farm visits (thank you Hampshire Country Learning!), the village walk
and the fantastic swimming lessons have gone some way to achieving that.
This term our learning is focused on “The Vikings”, the centre point of which will be
our residential visit to the Ancient Technology Centre’s Viking Longhouse at
Cranborne.
This unit of learning has been built around a series of key questions with an
emphasis on looking not just at what happened, but why.
1. What image do we have of the Vikings?
2. Why have the Vikings gained such a bad reputation?
3. How did the Vikings try to take over the country and how close did they get?
4. How have recent excavations changed our view of the Vikings?
5. What can we learn about Viking settlement from a study of place name
endings?
6. Raiders or settlers: how should we remember the Vikings?
Through our residential visit we will also be looking at Viking domestic life and
farming in some detail. While we will cover most aspects of Viking life and culture,
there will not be time to do it all to the same degree of depth. To allow the children
an opportunity to pursue their learning in an area of their own particular interest we
have developed a home learning activity.
This home learning activity is not compulsory, however we hope it will provide an
opportunity for children to engage in enjoyable learning at home with their parents.
Viking Home Learning Activity
It is too far for us to travel to the famous Jorvik Centre Viking museum in York, so
can the children create a museum exhibit for school that shows key features of
Viking life in Britain?
Your child should aim to create a “panel” (a piece of A3 paper, landscape or
portrait) for the exhibition. Each panel must contain:
• A title
• 3 key questions
• 5 blocks of text
• 4 images
Children can select from one of the following areas of Viking life:
• The Sagas (old Norse tales and mythology)
• Runic Writing
Bransgore CofE Primary School is a Limited by Guarantee company registered in England No.7803789
Registered Office: Ringwood Road, Bransgore, Christchurch, Dorset, BH23 8JH
VAT No: 123124074
Ringwood Road
Bransgore
Christchurch
Dorset
BH23 8JH
T 01425 672272
F 01425 674554
Headteacher
Mr Paul Brown
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Religion
Famous Vikings
Town Life
Vikings at war (equipment, clothing, tactics etc.)
Viking Crafts (boat building, jewellery, metalwork etc. You could focus on
just one craft)
A simple layout could be as follows:
Viking Religion
What did the Vikings believe?
Yggdrasil and the Nine Worlds (image)
(text)
The Three Main Gods – Odin, Thor and
Frey (text)
Thor and Loki (text)
Thor
(traditional
image)
Modern images of the Viking gods (image
from Marvel Thor comics/films)
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How did Vikings worship?
(text)
Why did Viking religious
beliefs change?
(text)
The Middleton Stone Cross
(image)
Please encourage your child to come up with their own questions.
Please avoid “copy and paste” from the internet for text - it is better for
children to read online texts, make notes and put the information into their
own words.
Text can either be handwritten or word processed.
Images can be drawn or printed/copied and pasted from websites or a mix
of both.
This is for an exhibition in school so presentation is very important!
A3 paper is available on request from school
Please return completed learning to school by Friday 11th July so that
it can be included in the Exit Point Exhibition on Wednesday 16th July
at 2.45pm.
The “panel” idea is only a suggestion. If your child feels even more creative and
wishes to build a model, create some art work, or anything else that would
extend their learning please go ahead!
Bransgore CofE Primary School is a Limited by Guarantee company registered in England No.7803789
Registered Office: Ringwood Road, Bransgore, Christchurch, Dorset, BH23 8JH
VAT No: 123124074
Ringwood Road
Bransgore
Christchurch
Dorset
BH23 8JH
T 01425 672272
F 01425 674554
Headteacher
Mr Paul Brown
Some helpful websites:
http://primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/vikings.html
http://home.freeuk.net/elloughton13/vikings.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/vikings/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/subjects/english/viking_sagas
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vikings/
http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/vikings.aspx
http://jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk/
If possible could children access the Viking Quest game at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/launch_gms_viking_quest.shtml in the
first few weeks of the unit? We will look at it in school, but children may want more
time to improve their learning and score at home. I thought my score of 643 was
quite respectable, but the Jarl still sacked me and sent me to work on a cod fishing
boat!
Yours sincerely
David Green (Year 3 and 4 Phase Leader)
Ringwood Road
Bransgore
Christchurch
Dorset
BH23 8JH
T 01425 672272
F 01425 674554
Bransgore CofE Primary School is a Limited by Guarantee company registered in England No.7803789
Registered Office: Ringwood Road, Bransgore, Christchurch, Dorset, BH23 8JH
VAT No: 123124074
Headteacher
Mr Paul Brown