Ms Collins Loves Books

Welcome to Division Seven’s Viking village!  We used what we’ve been learning about viking communities (clothing, housing, transportation) to build a village.

We were inspired by the viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland which I visited last summer.  Mrs. Clark helped make the papier maché mountains, which we then painted, as well as the water.  We stained the houses, and I put soil and grass seed on the roofs, since the houses in L’Anse aux Meadows had sod roofs.  Lots of students made various other items for the village (fires, beds, weapons) and clothing for the people.

I think our village looks pretty good, especially now that the grass is growing!  Click on the photos for a closer look.

For Social Studies we are learning about communities, by comparing our community to Viking communities.  Mrs. Clark and I were inspired to plan this unit together since we both visited Viking settlements last summer.

To start, we talked about transportation– you may have seen a Viking ship model come home before spring break.  Yesterday we moved on to housing, and we learned how vikings built the walls for their homes.  They used a construction method called “wattle and daub”.  Posts were anchored in the ground, then flexible branches were woven in between them.  This wooden structure is called “wattle”.  To seal the walls they applied a mixture of clay and dung called “daub”.

After each student had a chance to weave a branch between the posts we put on the daub (minus the dung!).  I think it looks quite close to a Viking wall.

Stay tuned for more Viking activities to come!

After various breaks (me being sick and the strike) we are diving back into social studies!  Two weeks ago we went for a walk up to create a map of our community.  If you come into the classroom you will see it on the bulletin board.  Each student made a building or business which is in the community, and we added them to the map as we walked.  We also made maps of our bedrooms.  It was challenging to imagine what furniture would look like from a “bird’s eye view.”  I told the students to imagine they were taped to the ceiling.

Yesterday we went into the computer lab to explore Google maps.  The students had lots of fun zooming in and out, and using street view to explore around our school.  Spend some time looking at it with your child, they got really excited by it.

View Larger Map

We will be learning more about maps, so if you are going on holiday in Spring Break, take a look at a map with your child.  Show them where you live and where you will be travelling.  They could even follow along as you drive!