A Viking invasion took place at Crayke Primary School last week! Class 3 had the experience of a lifetime when Thorhild the Viking visited the classroom to turn the childreninto Viking warriors – they were even given Viking names. By the end of the day the school hall had become a battlefield.
Thorhild talks about Viking bed head.
An experienced Viking, Thorhild was a mine of information and kept everyone excited. She showed us that in Viking times clothes were made out of wool or linen. Some of the class wore Viking clothes – Millie as a hard working mum, Holly as a rich lady and Charlie W. as a slave (so he had to work hard for Holly).Holly wore a big key at her waist that opened a box containing precious items and also showed that she was married. Thorhild announced, “ Men’s trousers had a gap between the two halves – which was useful in the middle of the night as they could go to the loo without taking down their trousers!”
She taught us about Viking houses which were built of wood or mud, depending on where the people lived. A house only had one room where they cooked, slept and kept animals in the winter. They carved animal heads on their beds to scare away bad spirits. They had an open fire for cooking food in a big metal pot. To light the fire they used flint and steel.
Our visitor showed Class 3 how Vikings used anything they had to exchange in order to buy what they wanted at the market. Two volunteers, Luke and Charlize, helped to act out a market scene. Luke was the trader and Charlize the buyer, wearing lots of silver bracelets and necklaces. The trader used a balance and if the money weighed too much he chopped a bit off to make the scales balance. After play we had a go at a variety of activities.
There were some board games to play. On the board were wood, stone or bead pieces. The game was a bit like drafts but if the king got to a corner of the board he was the winner. The game that we played was quite hard at first but as we got the hang of it, it got easier.
Another activity was to decorate combs by writing our Viking or proper names on them. There was no letter for y but the sound was the important thing so we could use i instead. The last activity was with numbers so you could find out how to write birthday dates in Viking writing.
In the afternoon Thorhild spoke to the whole school. She taught us about patience by showing us how Vikings made a woolly jumper. We learned that you needed lots of patience to make a jumper because all the stages took about 5 weeks- much more difficult than popping down to M and S!
Her next demonstration was showing her weapons of destruction. She demonstrated how to get past a shield which was quite funny and the children expected her to break Robert’s shield. She said that only rich Vikings would have been able to afford a sword
As we got nearer to battle time Class 3 learned about warrior training and how to walk sideways on towards enemies. A shield wall was easy to make with our newly painted shields.
Class 3 showing off their super, colourful shields.
All you did was overlap shields with the rest of your team. Nathan said, “I think the warrior training is useful because you can now fight your brother or sister!” We lined up in the shape of a triangle, a Boar Snout, and pretended to launch our leader into the enemies’ line. This made a hole in the middle of their line.
After a manic morning we grabbed our shields and marched to battle. We split into two armies and when Thorhild gave the command we attacked! Fin and Astara announced, “The battle was the best part of the day.”
Class 3 attack!
Reported by all the children in class 3.
