Invite your class to try this Internet-based hunt, suitable for middle- and upper-graders. Before you begin, distribute the reproducible page, below. Then direct students to the interactive hunt at www.scholastic.com/cyberhuntkids
 
CYBERHUNT ANSWER GUIDE
1. Norse. A pirate raid.
2. The Faeroe Islands. Iceland. Greenland. Leif Eriksson.
3. Beaches or riverbanks. Knorr.
4. Clouds. Sea birds. Seaweed.
5. Swords. Battle-axes. Berserker.
6. Farmers. Better land.
7. Odin. The sky. Thursday.
8. Fined. Sent out into the wilderness and given no help.
 
CYBERHUNT ACTIVITIES
Ahoy, Vikings!
http://library.thinkquest.org/C003446/a.php?b=12
Invite students to imagine that they are Vikings! Have them first visit this site to learn all about the exciting voyages of the Vikings, then ask them to write a first-person account of a day aboard a Viking ship. Encourage students to incorporate all the facts they've learned from this site in a creative interpretation of a "day in the life."
 
Decoding Messages
http://jedyt.tripod.com/ultima71runic.html
Runic, the writing of the Vikings, comes from a Gothic word meaning “secret”. Left mostly on wood or stone, there are many runic messages, found in Sweden. Invite students to visit this site, then write messages for other students to translate using the Runic alphabet.
 
Map the Viking Landings
www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vikings/diaspora.html
Have students click on the interactive map at this site to see all the locations where Vikings traveled, then ask them to each find at least three facts about an area that the Vikings visited or settled in. Have students write the information they learned on separate index cards. Then set up a huge map of the region on a bulletin board and invite students to label the areas with their cards.
 
Word “Route” Poems
http://odin.bio.miami.edu/norse/words.html
Many English words (such as Thursday, wrong, kid, berserk, and freckle) come from the Viking language of Old Norse. Using this site, have students choose to draw images of five of the English words and include their word history, or write a poem using some of the words we have gotten from the Vikings.
 
Museum Road Tour
www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/exhibit1_1_3.html
Visit this site to take a tour of some Viking artifacts, then have students create their own "Museum Road Tour." Have students each draw an example of an article found at the site and write out facst about the artifact. To extend this activity, invite students to recreate Viking "artifacts" out of craft materials for a 3-dimensional experience. Host other classes for tours of your "museum."
 
Dress Like a Viking
www.stemnet.nf.ca/CITE/v_dress.htm www.larp.com/midgard/shoes.htm
Have students  learn about the clothing and shoes of the Vikings at these sites. Then, have a Viking party! Set a day and invite students to come to school in costume, or provide stacks of old newspaper for kids to fashion their own costume pieces.
 
MORE VIKING LINKS
Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga
www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/start.html
A great map of Viking routes in the Teacher Resource Learning Center
 
American Museum of Natural History
www.amnh.org/exhibitions/vikings/homepage.html
Great site for complete overview on Viking history.
 
The History of Runes
www.amnh.org/exhibitions/vikings/write.html
The American Museum of Natural History's Runic translator.
 
Viking History
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/
Well-organized BBC site filled with information and history.
 
Viking Quest
www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/launch_gms_viking_quest.shtml
Play the game of facts and adventure.
 
The Viking Network
http://viking.no/e/etimeline.htm 
An ineractive timeline of Viking history.
 
Elementary Themes: The Vikings
www.stemnet.nf.ca/CITE/vikings.htm
Great info and resource site for teachers. Includes lessons!
 
The World of the Vikings
http://viking.hgo.se/Files/VikHeri/quiz/Quizshow.html
A fun, interactive Viking quiz and activities. 
 
Go to Kids' page

Gail Skroback Hennessey (www.gailhennessey.com) teaches sixth-grade social studies at Harpursville Central Middle School in Harpursville, New York.
 
CyberHunt © 2003 Scholastic Inc.
 
CYBERHUNT SAFETY: All the sites contained in the CyberHunt have been reviewed by our staff. At press time, all links are safe and consist of educational material. However, we are unable to control transfers of URLs after publication. We strongly urge teachers to review all sites before sharing them with students.

Download the Here Come the Vikings Reproducible. To open the Reproducible, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader software. If you do not have this software already installed, click here to download it FREE.