Activities for the Classroom

Design Your Own Norse God

Have students spend a week or two researching the Norse Gods and the myths which accompany them.  Try to read aloud to the class several different myths from the Norse background during the Social Studies section of class.  Also encourage students to check out books on Norse mythology from the library to read during the reading section of the day's activities. 

At the end of the week or two, then have students design their own Norse God and write the myth that would be tied to that god.  Allow them to be free to use other gods in the process of their writing because this will encourage more research into the Norse myths.  You can also have students make a drawing of their god as part of the project.

Build a Viking Ship

Spend some time during a section on Vikings focusing on the ship building process.  Have students design and build a Viking ship out of common household items.  Allow them to use their imagination and also have them consult books on ships from that time period.  Take them to the library and help them find the right section where they would need to look to find these books.

Role playing - Dealing With Peers

Design skits for students to work through several different episodes of peer pressure and how kids interact with each other.  There are many good books out there that will give you ideas as to which problems students are dealing with when it comes to peers.  Also see the section in the Themes area which focuses on Peers.

Plan a Viking Games Event

Rally your troops and come up with as many events as you can so that you can hold a game event just like Hiccup and his friends had to do in order to become real Hooligans!  You can make a day of it and even come up with inventive food ideas like Dragon Legs or Sea Weed Pockets.  Let your own and your kids' imagination run wild.

Host a Pet Day

Talk to students about the importance of taking care of their pets, what it requires, and how their animals help them.  Either have some students bring in their own pets or arrange to have a guest speaker come in and explain about their pet.  Some ideas that tie in with the book would be working animals like K-9 Unit dogs or even better...if you have a Falconer in your area, that is a great example to have come in because of the similarities of the falcon and the dragon in the book!

Design a Board Game

Draw up a basic board game design.  Then have students help decide what troubles Hiccup and the rest of his gang must overcome.  Write these into every other square on the playing board.  Next have students think of bonus that Hiccup and his friends can get along their way.  Write these into the remaining places on the board.  Find an old pair of dice to use with the game and let everyone who rolls "dragon eyes" roll twice!  Fun and engaging but it also makes kids think about the book in much more detail when they get to help come up with the ideas to fill the blanks!

You can also use the board game creator a the educator site by clicking the link below.

Board Game Creator


A Book Full of Activities!!!

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The Vikings by Sally Hewitt

This book is full of fun and educational things to do!  The list includes making a helmet, building a Viking ship, build a Viking village, clothing ideas, weaving, making pan pipes and designing a picture stone.