The Vikings were incredible sailors, crossing treacherous seas in their longboats. They have a reputation for being fearsome warriors, but they were also traders, taking items such as iron to the Far East, and returning with fabric and spices.
The Viking Age lasted from around CE 700 to CE 1100.
Teach your children about the Vikings using our handy topic guide!
Teaching Ideas
- Use this story about a Viking family feud as the inspiration for a drama lesson.
- Try these teaching ideas to accompany the book The Queen’s Poison, set in Viking Jorvik (York).
- These Follow Me cards are terrific for recapping your Viking topic as a class, or in groups.
- Teach your children about Viking runes with these sheets.
- Bake some Viking bread and eat it drizzled with honey, Viking style!
- Reinforce your childrens’ understanding with these word searches and crosswords on Viking vocabulary.
- Use this quiz to test your knowledge of Viking explorers.
- Create your own Viking Timeline.
Resources
- Our Vikings Teaching Pack is packed with information and resources to use with your children.
- These Viking fact cards can be used for research, display or even reading tasks.
- This PowerPoint contains images from the burning of a Viking longship.
- Use our Viking image bank to support your teaching and start discussions.
- Use our banner to give your Vikings display real impact!
Vikings Knowledge Organiser
Members of Teaching Packs can download a comprehensive knowledge organiser to accompany this topic. It includes key information that your children can use for reference and research, along with a timeline of key events, a glossary with relevant vocabulary and plenty of illustrations and photos.
Not a member yet? Join us today!
Viking Facts
- The Vikings came from Scandinavia, which comprises the modern countries of Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
- Vikings never wore horned helmets. The idea came about in the 19th century, when they were used as part of the costumes worn by Vikings in an opera!
- The Vikings used an alphabet known as Runes.
- The Vikings settled in many parts of Europe, including the British Isles, France and Italy. There were also Viking settlements in Iceland, Greenland, Canada and Russia.
- Viking houses were one big room, with a fire in the middle. Animals lived at one end of the building, and the people lived at the other.
Videos
Viking Hair Salon
Despite being extremely vicious, Vikings really cared about their appearance!
Running time: 1:31
Viking History for Kids
What do you know about the Vikings? Well, the stuff you’ve heard about them may not be true. The Vikings were some of the greatest travellers of their time, and they weren’t always traveling to steal.
Running time: 4:26
An Incredible Viking Voyage
Watch a young viking learn how to identify the proper tree to build a ship, nail the craft together, and set off on a journey around Europe.
Running time: 4:14
Viking Gods and Goddesses
Norse Mythology Gods & Goddesses. Who are the norse gods and goddesses? What are the powers of the norse deities have? Odin, Thor, Loki, Freyja and more.
Running time: 4:58
Thor’s journey to the land of giants
Thor – son of Odin, god of thunder, and protector of mankind – struggled mightily against his greatest challenge yet: opening a bag of food. How had the mighty god fallen so far? Scott Mellor tells the myth of Thor’s journey to Utgard.
Running time: 5:17
Books
How To Train Your Dragon
In the first How to Train Your Dragon book Hiccup must lead ten novices in their initiation into the Hairy Hooligan Tribe. They have to train their dragons or be BANISHED from the tribe FOR EVER!
Can Hiccup save the tribe – and become a Hero?
The Dragon's Hoard
Meet the Vikings and enter their enchanting world full of warriors and battles, heroes and heroines, Berserkers, monsters and zombies, and of course, lots of magic.
Viking Boy
Gunnar is the son of a Viking chieftain, living peacefully on his family steading with his mother, father and their people – until they are raided by Skuli and his Wolf Men, who raze his home to the ground and take his father’s life. Gunnar swears an oath to avenge his father’s death and save his mother from Skuli – but first he must run to save himself.
Odd and the Frost Giants
Odd’s luck has been bad so far. He lost his father on a Viking expedition, his foot was crushed beneath a tree, and the winter seems to be going on for ever. But when Odd flees to the woods and releases a trapped bear, his luck begins to change. Can a twelve-year-old boy reclaim Thor’s hammer, outwit the frost giants and release the gods?
You Wouldn't Want to Be a Viking Explorer!
Get ready…as an adventurous young Viking living in 10th century Norway, you are keen to join other explorers in search of a new life elsewhere. You will travel vast distances across the Atlantic Ocean in a long ship, to the coast of a new continent. It will be a difficult and dangerous journey – you really wouldn’t want to be a Viking explorer!
Vicious Vikings
All the foul facts about the Vicious Vikings are ready to uncover, including including Viking Gods in wedding dresses, corpses on trial and Death by booby-trapped statues.
Who Were the Vikings?
Why were people so afraid of the Vikings? Why were some buried in boats? These are just two of the many questions tackled in this enjoyable look at the Vikings.
Links
- Access teaching resources from the Jorvik Viking Centre on this page.
- BBC Bitesize has some fantastic learner guides on the Vikings.
- The BBC Viking Saga encourages music making about the Vikings.
- The DKfindout! Vikings section is perfect for independent research.
- Practise your phonics with this Viking themed Full Circle game (Aligned to phases 2 and 3 of Letters and Sounds).
- This interactive map shows information about the Viking’s voyages and trade routes.
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