All Activities
History

The Viking Age

Overview

Children discover the Viking age — exploring the reality behind the myth and learning about Viking exploration, trade, and settlement.

Learning Objective
Children understand who the Vikings were, where they came from, and what they achieved beyond the popular image of raiders and warriors.

Resources needed

  • None

Lesson stages

0 / 7 done
  1. 1 Ask: what do you know or imagine about Vikings? List ideas.
  2. 2 Introduce: Vikings were Norse people from Scandinavia — Norway, Denmark, Sweden — active from around 790 to 1100 CE.
  3. 3 Discuss the raider image: yes, some Vikings raided — but this is only part of the story.
  4. 4 Introduce the other sides: traders, settlers, explorers, craftspeople, farmers.
  5. 5 Describe their remarkable exploration: Iceland, Greenland, and reaching North America 500 years before Columbus.
  6. 6 Ask: what does it tell us about the Vikings that they reached North America?
  7. 7 Discuss: why do we remember only one side of the Viking story? Who wrote the history?

Tap a step to mark it as done.

Variations

  • Focus on Leif Eriksson and the Norse settlement in North America.
  • Compare the Viking experience as raiders versus settlers in different places.
  • Discuss Viking ships — why were they so important to their success?
More information

Teach: Norse, Scandinavia, raid, settle, trader, longship, saga, Valhalla. The contrast between the raider image and the full reality is the core conceptual lesson.

Focus on the exploration story — reaching North America — as the most dramatic and surprising single achievement.

Can children name two things Vikings did beyond raiding? Can they explain why the raider image is incomplete?

No resources needed. Draw a rough map showing Scandinavia and the Viking routes westward. Teacher oral account is sufficient.

Children (and many adults) picture horned helmets — there is no historical evidence Vikings wore them in battle. This is itself a good example of how myths develop around historical groups.

The Vikings reached North America around 1000 CE — confirmed by archaeology at L'Anse aux Meadows in Canada. Correcting the one-dimensional raider image reveals a sophisticated, wide-ranging culture.

Activity details
Primary Medium 25 minutes no prep Whole Class, Small Group Indoor & Outdoor
Topics
Viking Age Medieval History Exploration