Voyages of the Vikings

We are about to take an adventure to the Middle Ages to meet up with the Vikings.   The word Viking conjures up all kinds of images.  Images of pirates, raiders, explorers, and barbarians wearing horned-helmets.  For the most part, these images are correct minus the horned-helmets.  Historians believe that the horned-helmets depicted in most pictures would have been hazardous and cumbersome in the close-quarter style Viking combat.  Many Vikings were in fact dirty, crazy-haired pirates that took whatever they wanted from whomever they wanted whenever they wanted but many lived on farms raising pigs, sheep, goats, cattle, geese, and chickens.  They grew different kinds of grains and various types of vegetables.  The Vikings lived in long houses made from wood, stone, or blocks with thatched roofs.  Their clothing was simple.  Men wore tunics and trousers and women wore long dresses with aprons.  Vikings made their clothing from wool, linen, and animal skins.  (Information can be found here).

Here are a few books and other resources that I have found so far for our study.

I hope this will be enough. 

This is a simple, fun game I found to print off and play.  Mostly it was about the routes that the Vikings took during their explorations.  Great mapping skills.

BBC primary history-Vikings

resources for teaching

Viking Quest game

I also purchased Viking notebook pages from CurrClick produced by The Notebook Nook.

We are going to be learning about daily life, exploration, boats, weapons, and the places that the Vikings explored and discovered.