Starter quiz
- Which people sailed in longboats?
- Polynesians
- Ancient Greeks
- Vikings ✓
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- Who were the Vikings?
- seafarers from Europe ✓
- soldiers from Europe
- fighters from Europe
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- Which word means travelling along a route?
- exploring
- navigating ✓
- journeying
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- What did Vikings use to move their longboats?
- shields
- oars ✓
- scary carvings
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- What was special about the bottom of a longboat?
- It was wooden.
- It was curved.
- It was flat. ✓
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- What did Vikings do with their shields before a raid?
- clean them
- hang them over the side of the longboat ✓
- hold them up above their heads
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Exit quiz
- Which people dig up objects from the past?
- historians
- archaeologists ✓
- students
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- Archaeologists think the Vikings used ______ to help them navigate.
- computers
- sun-shadow boards ✓
- maps
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- Vikings had no maps. How did they navigate their longboats?
- They asked for directions.
- They used clues from nature. ✓
- They let the wind take them.
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- Vikings went on journeys to reach ports. Why did they do this?
- so they could live there
- so they could farm there
- so they could trade there ✓
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- How did Vikings navigate at night time?
- They used the positions of the stars. ✓
- They didn't travel at nighttime.
- They went slower in case they crashed.
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- The Vikings travelled to lots of different ports in the east and west.
- True ✓
- False
Worksheet
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Presentation
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Video
Lesson Details
Key learning points
- The Vikings used the sun, moon and stars to navigate, and also followed the path of birds and other animals.
- Some archaeologists have found wooden 'sun-shadow' boards that might have been used by the Vikings to navigate.
- The Vikings used these techniques to travel long distances.
- The Vikings sailed far down the rivers of Europe to trading ports and met with traders from the Middle East and Asia.
- They even travelled as far as Iceland, Greenland and North America.
Common misconception
Pupils may think that archaeologists only dig up bones, like dinosaurs or extinct creatures.
Archaeologists work with all sorts of objects from the past, many of the items in museums have been dug up by an archaeologist.
Keywords
Archaeologist - an archaeologist digs up and studies objects from the past
Evidence - evidence is something that proves an idea or fact to be true
Stars - the stars are balls of gas in space that give off light and heat
Port - a port is a place where boats load and unload, and trade happens
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