On Tuesday 15th June, Lower Juniors spent a day of creative projects around the topic of Vikings. During the day the children in teams took turns at 6 different activities developing skills across a range of the curriculum:

• Orienteering (PE / Geography / History / Team work)
• Brooch Making (Art / History)
• Soup Making (DT / History)
• Viking Boat Sketching (Art / History)
• Bread Making (DT / Maths)
• Rune writing (English / History)

Orienteering

In small teams, the children had to find areas of the school ground using their knowledge of the area hunting for locations only identifiable by zoomed in pictures. This was quite a physically active task, some picture clues were more obvious than others and some looked like areas the children thought they had seen before but sometimes led to dead ends.

Brooch Making

Firstly, we discussed Viking brooches and what they would have been made of and then we creatively designed and made our own! 

Soup Making

After washing their hands, the children looked at how Vikings would have made soup, over an open fire. They then read out the recipe and we talked about how some vegetables, like potatoes, would not have been used back then. The children could choose from: sweet potatoes, potatoes or carrots. They used potato peelers to peel, then kitchen knives to carefully cut on chopping boards. We made an enormous vat of lentil and vegetable soup, and ate the next day on the field – it wasn’t as popular as the bread!

Viking Ship Sketching

On a lovely day in a shaded spot outside, the children followed a step by step guide to draw a Viking Longboat. Using art pencils we gently sketched different sections of the boat using shapes and our hands to estimate ratio measurements. Pressing on hard lines we want to keep and gently erasing guidelines we no longer need. All of our projects started as a rectangle and below is some of our final results. (Some children added in extra scenery and detail to the complement the Longboat.)

Bread Making

Following a simple bread making instruction, we trialled the new bread making machines. We may not be in competition with Warburtons yet - but it was very tasty bread. The children discussed reactions caused by yeast, and the different kinds of yeast. They measured ingredients and talked about the need for correct quantities and following recipes. They made one gluten free loaf, which was a bit of a disaster! The next day we went out on the field and ate the bread, and all enjoyed it.

Rune Writing

Making the most of the beautiful weather, we sat in the outdoor hut and used the old language of the Vikings, called 'Runic', to create our own name labels in runic. We noticed that the letters mostly used straight lines, and only a 'B' and a 'R' looked similar to how we draw those letters today. After we wrote our names, we decorated our name cards ready for laminating!

Taste Test

After a hard day working, the children got the opportunity to taste the product of their labour. I don't think we will be winning Master Chef anytime soon. Some children loved the soup, whilst others had a taste. Although the soup had a mixed response, the bread was a huge hit, so maybe Warburtons might have to start being worried after all.