Viking Age · 870-1021

Iceland, Greenland and Vinland

Norse settlers sail ever further west: to Iceland, to Greenland and, around the year 1000, to the coast of North America. Students follow them island by island, meet the peoples who already lived there, and ask why Vinland was given up.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, AD 1000
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Norse settlers sail ever further west: to Iceland, to Greenland and, around the year 1000, to the coast of North America. Students follow them island by island, meet the peoples who already lived there, and ask why Vinland was given up.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Trace the Norse route across the North Atlantic from Norway to Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland.
  • Explain what the Althing was and why it is called one of the oldest parliaments.
  • Use the evidence of L'Anse aux Meadows to show that the Norse reached North America, and describe the Indigenous peoples they met.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1000

A warmer North

Open the map in 1000 and turn on Weather of History. Read the card on the Medieval Warm Period. How might milder weather have helped the Norse sail and farm in the far north?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1000

Island to island

Zoom out to see Norway, Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland at once. Find the Icelandic Commonwealth. Which sea crossing on the way west looks the longest?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1000

Who already lived there

Zoom in on Newfoundland and Labrador. Read the names of the Indigenous peoples on the map. Who might the Norse have met here?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Iceland had no king. Free men met each summer at the Althing to make laws and settle disputes. What are the strengths and weaknesses of that system?
  2. The sagas say Erik the Red called the new land "Greenland" to attract settlers. Was that fair?
  3. The sagas about Vinland were written down about 200 years later. How does L'Anse aux Meadows help us check them?
  4. The Norse called the people they met "skraelings". How might the Indigenous people have seen the newcomers?
  5. The Norse left Vinland after a few years and left Greenland by the 1400s. What could the reasons be?
4

Game round

10 min

Play Rule History as Charlemagne, a king who ruled from a palace. Afterwards, compare with Iceland, which had no king at all: free farmers met at the Althing to make laws. Which system would you rather live under?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.