Fearsome Vikings invade Crosfields
PILLAGING and play fighting were the lessons for the day as our Year 5 pupils celebrated our annual Viking day.
Pupils put on homemade furs, cloaks and horns on Monday last week to transform themselves into fearsome Vikings for their interactive history day linking to what they have recently been studying.
Throughout the day the Year 5’s immersed themselves in the world of the Vikings, participating in a range of different workshops carried out by both our Year 5 teachers and external helpers dressed for the occasion.
The children spent the day learning about Vikings’ lifestyles and mythology, before singing and chanting around a camp fire they had made down in our Forest schools outside classroom. Jack B said he ‘loved having the freedom to build his own fire and then melt the ice using the fire’ he had started.
While sat around the camp fire the children had the opportunity to try drinking ‘mead’ while melting ice, which to the Year 5’s discovery, had a Viking coin frozen inside.
Charlie E said: “Being in the woods was great fun, we made fires and also ate our lunch outside all together.”
The children carved their own Viking runes into soap outside on the field. Also, our Vikings guests encouraged the children to use their imaginations to make stories and new worlds out of nature which Frieda C said “was her highlight of the day”.
The Year 5s later had the opportunity to become Berserkers in combat learning Viking calls and moves re-enacting a Viking invasion.
Susannah W said: “The Berserker howl showed I was ready for battle and was really fun because it made me understand how the Vikings would have felt.”
This historic day was rounded off with an interactive show in theatre lead by our external Viking experts.
The children were asked a class at a time to run onto the stage and sit in the Viking ship that had been built for them.
The Year 5’s imagined sailing off to battle with the bright lights and chants being sung by the children making the ship come alive and feel very realistic.
All children thoroughly enjoyed their day creating great excitement around the Vikings while teaching the children in a way we hope they will remember for a long time to come.