On Tuesday 24th January Ruby and Emerald class went to Tatton Park to learn all about Vikings. We learned all about what the Vikings used to eat and how they made their food, how they bought things and how they used to protect themselves in battle. We were very lucky and had over 10 parents volunteer to come along on the trip. It was a fantastic day.
First we learned about how the Vikings made their food. We started by looking at wheat and we pulled some seeds out of the wheat. We then went to a hut and we used one big rock and a slightly smaller rock to grind the seeds. From grinding the seeds we started to make flour! We had to grind the seeds very hard in order to make the flour. We then put the flour into a bowl and Lady Margaret added some water and mixed it together. We then had to roll the flour into a ball and then flatten it a tiny bit and we then added all of flour into a cooking pan. All of the group then went back outside and Lady Margaret placed the pan on the fire and bread was made! This was very interesting and we all learned how Vikings made their food.
The next activity was nearly our whole group’s favourite! We learned all about the Vikings trading market. First we looked at drinking horns and bowls that could be used for cooking and eating. We were told that the Vikings made things in order to trade for the things they needed. One thing they used to make was braids. We used a piece of cardboard with 8 slits but the Vikings would have used metal and we threaded 7 strings of thread through the slits. Then we turned the cardboard clockwise and counted three pieces of thread and moved the third piece of thread to the empty slit. If you were left handed you had to move the cardboard anti-clockwise so it was easier!
In the third activity we went into another room and we were shown some different types of deer fur. We also saw some antlers. We learned all about what Vikings would have used this fur for and what they would of used antlers for. We learned how the Vikings would have hunted deer and how and what weapons they would have made.
In the fourth session we looked at all different types of weapons, shields and armour. We saw an Anglo-Saxon helmet, a Roman helmet and a Viking Helmet. They were all very different and protected your face in different ways. The favourite one of our group was the Viking helmet. We thought that helmet would have protected us the most. We also looked at different shields and Eric showed us how to stand in formation with our shields protecting different areas of our bodies. Eric ran along us and tried to hit us with his axe. It was lucky we had the shields to protect us! We also learned a Viking chant which Vikings would have sung on their way into battle.
