Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Viking Review, Assessment, and Feast!

Today in class we placed the review pages for our Vikings unit into our History notebooks. We went over each page and highlighted the parts that would be most useful to review/study. Students were to begin bringing their notebooks home tonight to go through the information, practice the map skills (also available on our game Viking Exploration), and review the vocabulary words from the unit. The assessment on Monday should be pretty straightforward, and all of the information needed is in the History notebook. If your student was absent and has missing pages for any reason, please remind them that they need to be sure to use either my notebook or one of a responsible group-mate to catch up when they return. 

Now, for the FUN part- details about our upcoming Viking Feast!

When:        
Tuesday, November 24th from 2:00-3:30 
Where:       
in the CHPCS lunchroom
Why:          
to celebrate learning and enjoy a meal together as a community
Who:          
3rd grade students and their families. Parents, siblings, grandparents are welcome!
What to expect:   
We will be performing 3 short plays, followed by a feast fit for a Viking!
What to bring:     
Each student is asked to bring a dish to share. Dishes may be dropped off in the Zip room Tuesday morning or brought by an adult to the feast at 2:00. 

From BBC.co.uk: "With no fridges or freezers our Viking family has to take special measures to stop their food going bad. Meat and fish can be smoked or rubbed with salt. Fruit can be dried; grains are made into bread or ale. Dairy produce such as milk is made into cheese. Cooking the meat will make it last a little longer, making sausages will make it last longer still.
At sunset the family gather together in the long house. The usual evening meal will be enlarged tonight because it is one of the three Viking feast nights. In their homelands a horse would have been sacrificed to the old gods. Horsemeat was spitted and roasted rather like a kebab. There will also be salted fish and pork, goat and plenty of fresh bread. For dessert the Vikings will eat fresh fruit and a little honey on buttered bread. Ale will be drunk as well as mead, a beverage made from honey.
Horsemeat was spitted and roasted rather like a kebab.
The Vikings had bowls and plates very similar to our own, but made more often from wood rather than pottery. They ate with a sharp pointed knife, which served as both a knife and a fork (the latter would not be invented for another century). Spoons were made from wood, horn or animal bone. They were often carved with delicate patterns of interlaced knotwork and the heads of fabulous beasts. Drink was taken in horns, similarly decorated and sometimes with metal tips and rims."

From History.com: "While we might tend to think of Vikings standing over huge roasting pits with joints of mutton dripping onto hot coals, evidence suggests roasting and frying weren’t the favored cooking methods of the time. In fact, Vikings most often boiled their meats. Indeed, the centerpiece of the day’s meals was a boiled meat stew, called skause. As meats and vegetables were taken out of the pot, new ones were added, and the broth became concentrated over days of cooking.  Skause was eaten with bread baked with all sorts of grains, beans and even tree bark–birch bark can be dried and ground and is actually very nutritious. Vikings used old bread dough to make sourdough loaves, and would also use soured milk and buttermilk to enrich their breads.
Vegetables and fruits were much more wild than any of our modern varieties. Carrots would have been added to the daily skause, but they weren’t orange; white carrots were the only ones available. Viking farmers cultivated cabbages, beans, peas and endive, and wild apples and berries were also available to Middle Age diners. A wide range of herbs and seasonings helped flavor Viking food, with spices like coriander, cumin, mustard and wild horseradish making an appearance at the table."
And, this page from Viking Answer Lady has a Longship load of information about food, including several recipes found at the bottom of the page
I hope you found this information helpful. Please let me know if you have any questions! Also, please write "Thor" in your child's planner for a Home-school connection Dojo point! (or send me a dojo message).

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Viking It and Liking It!

Parents, 
Leaving Rome behind us, we are preparing to begin our new history unit, Vikings, this week.  We will learn about the ancient Norse civilization through listening to the story of a young boy named Bjorn. We will learn about the Vikings' cultural practices and their history of shipbuilding, sailing, raiding, and trading. We will also study the geography of the places where Norse people lived and explored, and how living by bodies of water influenced the Viking lifestyle.

Unit Objectives:
3.C.2 Rights, Roles, and Responsibilities in the Political Process.  I compare and contrast citizenship and slavery, including the applicable rights and responsibilities of each..
* I can identify the three orders/classes of Norse people; thralls, karls, and jarls
* I can describe everyday life of the Norse people.
* I can can recall that the Thing was an assembly where the Norse made decisions for their community
3.E.1 Nature and Function of Economic Systems. I analyze how the finite nature of resources affects (and affected) the choices of individuals and communities.
* I can describe the V. peoples’ proficiency and legacy as sailors, raiders, and traders.
* I can explain that only the warriors who went on raids to other lands were called Vikings, and why they are also called Norsemen or Northmen.
3.G.1 Spatial Thinking. I use geographic terms and tools (maps, globes, legends, etc.) to describe space and place and to organize, represent, summarize, and interpret geographical data.
* I can identify and locate Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) as the area from which the Vikings originated.
* I can locate Greenland, Iceland, Newfoundland, Canada, the Atlantic Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, and the Norwegian Sea
3.H.1 Historical Perspectives.  I identify and analyze the impacts of significant people, developments, events, and resources of the eras I am studying; I create and interpret a timeline.

* I can explain the importance of Erik the Red and Leif Eriksson.
* I can explain that Norse people worshipped many gods and goddesses, and name the 8 most important deities within Norse mythology.

Below you will find an expected timeline of events for the unit, followed by some suggestions for activities that you may do at home to reinforce what your child is learning about the Vikings. 

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
2
(Human Body review)
3
  Who were the Vikings?

4  
Home of the Vikings
5
 Viking Life
6
9
(Human Body Assessment)
10
Raiders and Traders
11
Veteran’s Day-
No School

12
Field Trip to Chief Lelooska, creating our Viking helmets
13
16
Family Life
17
Sagas and Swords
18
Saying Goodbye
19
Sailing to a New Land
20
23
Assessment
24
Viking Feast
(Family Showcase)
2:00-3:30 in the lunchroom
25
26
27

* Please note that each student needs to bring an old "baseball" style hat on or before November 10th. Larger (non-kid) hats are preferred. These will be altered so please do not send any hats you can't live without. Write your child's name or initials on the inside of the brim prior to sending to school
**Throughout the unit we will be preparing to perform in plays based upon Norse Mythology at our showcase and feast on November 24th. I hope you will be able to join us!

Home-school Connections
Vikings: Geography and Culture-  
On a world map or globe, have your child locate Scandinavia, which includes the countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Talk with your child about how Scandinavia is surrounded by water. Discuss how living close to bodies of water influences what civilizations eat, how they travel, etc. Ask your child what the word Viking means. Discuss that the Vikings traveled by sea to raid and plunder other lands. They also traded with other people, gathering resources and goods not available in their homeland. Emphasize that the Vikings were the warriors of a larger Norse civilization. Have your child locate rivers near Scandinavia and discuss how the Vikings would also use these bodies of water to reach faraway lands. You may wish to have your child draw a map of Scandinavia, and label Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark.  As we progress through the unit we will also add Iceland, Greenland, Vinland (Newfoundland, CA) to our list of places that Norse settlers expanded to and explored. 
Words to Use-
  • ferocious- The ferocious Viking warriors sailed from land to land, looking for areas to raid.
  • treacherous- The high waves of the ocean waters were treacherous for the Viking sailors.
  • reliable- Bjorn's father was known in town as a reliable blacksmith.
  • unison- The Vikings moved together in unison as they used the giant oars to propel the longship.
  • sagas- The skalds were poets who were responsible for passing down the sagas of the Viking people so that their history and culture would be remembered. 
  • tunic- Bjorn and Toli each received a handmade tunic to wear on their voyage to Iceland.
  • indistinguishable- Toli muttered indistinguishable words in his sleep.
  • disembarked- Bjorn and Toli disembarked the ship in Iceland and looked around in amazement at their new home. 
Sayings and Phrases-
Your child will be learning the sayings "last straw" and "rule the roost". Talk with your child about  the meaning of each phrase. In relation to "last straw", share with your child a time when you experienced a series of difficult events, with the last event causing you to lose your temper or cry. In relation to "rule the roost," share with your child someone you know who acts as the boss in your family, your workplace, etc. What did that person do that allowed them to "rule the roost"? Find opportunities to use these sayings again and again.

Read Aloud Each Day-
Below are some suggested books about Vikings and the Norse people. Many of them are available through the public library.

Please write the word longship in your child's planner (OR send it to me in a Dojo message) and they will receive a Dojo point for home-school connections!

<3,
Mrs. Gausman