This two part session gives the topic on the Vikings a really active start. Following an introduction to the Vikings in time and place, including a competitive Time Team task, pupils investigate stereotypical images of Vikings as a start to the overall enquiry.
The main fun part of the lesson is the reconstruction relay. Pupils are placed in role as Saxon spies who have to find out what makes the Vikings’ boats so special. After the fast and furious finding out there is a quieter thinking of questions section, followed by a hot seating activity.
What image do we have of the Vikings today? Vikings Key Question 1
Learning objectives
- Pupils are able to pick out three stereotypical features of images from today’s media and popular perceptions;
- they know where the Vikings came from and why they attacked;
- they know that the Vikings were a real threat from the sea;
- they can relate the Vikings in time to the Roman and Anglo-Saxons;
- the more able grasp that the initial period of raiding lasted just one short episode within a period of Viking contact with England that lasted nearly 3 centuries from 789 to 1066.
