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Leif Eriksson HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY The Vikings Eric the Red Teacher Guide Ship’s prow Thor’s hammer Viking cargo ship The Vikings Teacher Guide Creative Commons Licensing This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. You are free: to Share—to copy, distribute, and transmit the work to Remix—to adapt the work Under the following conditions: Attribution—You must attribute the work in the following manner: This work is based on an original work of the Core Knowledge® Foundation (www.coreknowledge.org) made available through licensing under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This does not in any way imply that the Core Knowledge Foundation endorses this work. Noncommercial—You may not use this work for commercial purposes. Share Alike—If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one. 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ISBN: 978-1-68380-096-5 ISBN: The Vikings Table of Contents Introduction ...................................................... 1 The Vikings Sample Pacing Guide ..................................... 11 Chapter 1 The Vikings ....................................... 13 Chapter 2 Traders and Raiders ............................ 20 Chapter 3 Viking Sailors and Ships ....................... 26 Chapter 4 Eric the Red ...................................... 32 Chapter 5 Leif Eriksson ..................................... 37 Chapter 6 Viking Gods and Myths ........................ 42 Teacher Resources .................................................. 51 The Vikings Teacher Guide Core Knowledge History and Geography™ 3 UNIT 3 Introduction ABOUT THIS UNIT The Big Idea The Vikings’ expertise as sailors and shipbuilders—and their fierce raiding spirit—enabled them to trade, conquer, and explore over a vast area. The Vikings, also known as the Norse, originated in the present-day region of Scandinavia. Often remembered historically for raiding and plundering the European continent, as well as parts of Russia, the Vikings were also a people skilled in sailing, building, and exploring. Over time, the Vikings made their way from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden to other parts of the world. Eric the Red and his son, Leif Eriksson, had a profound impact on Viking exploration with the discovery of Iceland and Greenland. The Vikings, like many other cultures, developed their own mythology to better explain and understand the world around them. INTRODUCTION 1 Time Period Background What Students Need to Learn The items below refer to content in Grade 3. Use timelines with students to help them sequence and relate events from different • Vikings periods and groups. - Originated in an area now called Scandinavia, which includes Late 700s Dane invasion of England present-day Sweden, Denmark, and Norway Late Viking invasions of Europe - Also called the Norse 700s–1000s - Skilled sailors and shipbuilders as well as traders; sometimes raiders of European coastal areas 874 +/- 2 Vikings reach Iceland - Eric the Red; Leif Eriksson, also known as “Leif the Lucky” 982 Discovery of Greenland by Eric the Red - Earliest Europeans in North America - Locations of Greenland, the mainland of Canada, and Newfoundland c. 1000 Landfall in North America by Leif Eriksson 2 THE VIKINGS AT A GLANCE The most important ideas in Unit 3 are: • The Vikings originated in the Scandinavian regions of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. • The Vikings moved out from their home base of Scandinavia in different directions: those from Norway sailed west and south; those from Denmark moved south; and those from Sweden went east and south. • Skillful shipbuilders and sailors, the Vikings developed fast-moving, highly maneuverable longships that could sail rivers as well as oceans. • The Vikings were interested in trade as well as in raiding Europe. • Eric the Red, one of the Vikings who ventured west beyond the known lands, was the first European to find Greenland. • Archaeologists have found what they consider proof that Leif Eriksson, the son of Eric the Red, explored as far west as the North American continent. WHAT TEACHERS NEED TO KNOW Background The Vikings moved out from their home base of Scandinavia across the North Atlantic to the British Isles, Iceland, Greenland, and finally North America. Their presence in North America was fleeting, but they had a lasting impact on Europe, establishing long-term rule in England, France, and Russia. Scandinavia The Vikings originated in present-day Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, the countries known collectively as Scandinavia. Norway and Sweden share the Scandinavian Peninsula, while Denmark lies to the south of them on the Jutland Peninsula. The term Viking comes from vikingr, which means pirate in early Scandinavian. The Scandinavian Peninsula is bordered on the east by the Gulf of Bothnia, Finland, and Russia; on the south by the Baltic Sea; and on the west by the Norwegian Sea. Mainland Denmark lies between the North and Baltic seas, but the country also encompasses more than four hundred islands scattered on these seas. To the south, mainland Denmark borders Germany. Much of the Scandinavian Peninsula consists of rugged highlands with little fertile land. In contrast, Denmark is very flat with good farmland. Thousands of years ago, during the last Ice Age, glaciers moved south across the Scandinavian Peninsula. As they moved, their force carved out lakes and valleys. INTRODUCTION 3 The displaced soil was dragged along by the glaciers and deposited in Denmark and other areas of Europe farther south. Sailors, Traders, and Raiders Because of the limited resources of their homeland, the people of Scandinavia had long turned to the sea for their living. They developed light, fast craft called longships that were sturdy enough to strike out on the rough northern seas. Their ships were capable of great speed and maneuverability. Beginning in the late 700s CE and until the 1000s CE, the Vikings launched a series of raids against the rest of Europe. These raids may have begun because of population pressures and internal rivalries, and were certainly initiated to gain trading advantages. No town, castle, or monastery in the way of the Vikings was safe from burning and looting. By the end of this period, the Vikings had opened trade routes from northern Europe to the Byzantine Empire. The Vikings moved out from Scandinavia in different directions: Those from what is today Norway sailed west and south; those from Denmark moved south; and those from Sweden moved east and south. Eric the Red and Leif Eriksson In 982, Eric the Red was expelled from Iceland for murder. He sailed west and came to a huge island where he found a cold, bleak, rugged land, much of which was buried beneath deep fields of ice. He called it Greenland to entice settlers. Other Vikings followed him and settled along the coast. There, they built large houses with thick walls of stone and turf to keep in the heat. The Viking settlements lasted into the 1300s or 1400s, but when English explorers rediscovered the island in the 1500s, they found no trace of the descendants of these first colonists. At some point they had disappeared, either dying out or mixing with the Inuit who had also settled on the island. Around 1000, Leif Eriksson, Eric the Red’s son, sailed west from Greenland. He found and explored three areas that he called Flat Rock Land, Forest Land, and Vineland. He built a settlement in Vineland as a base for exploration of resources in the area. The group found grapes and unknown fruits and nuts. They also encountered local people who first traded and then fought with them. The Vikings stayed only a few seasons. The local people were a constant threat, and the Vikings were too few in number to control the area. Their supply line was also two thousand miles long. On his return trip to Greenland, Leif Eriksson and his men rescued a shipwrecked Viking crew. According to custom, Leif was awarded the rich cargo of the ship and was henceforth known as “Leif the Lucky.” To learn more about specific topics in this unit, download the CKHG Online Resource “About the Vikings”: www.coreknowledge.org/ckhg-online-resources 4 THE VIKINGS UNIT RESOURCES Student Component The Vikings Student Reader—six chapters Teacher Components The Vikings Teacher Guide—six chapters. This includes lessons aligned to each chapter of The Vikings Student Reader with a daily Check for Understanding and Additional Activities designed to reinforce the chapter content. A Unit Assessment, Performance Task Assessment, and Activity Pages are included at the end of this Teacher Guide in Teacher Resources, beginning on page 51. • The Unit Assessment tests knowledge of the entire unit, using standard testing formats. • The Performance Task Assessment requires students to apply and share the knowledge learned during the unit through either an oral or a written presentation. • The Activity Pages are designed to reinforce and extend content taught in specific chapters throughout the unit. These optional activities are intended to provide choices for teachers. The Vikings Timeline Image Cards—seven individual images depicting significant events and individuals related to the Vikings. In addition to an image, each card contains a caption, a chapter number, and the Big Question, which outlines the focus of the chapter.