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My Great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was a Warrior

Geography -- Lands of the Vikings
The Vikings were once great explorers, traders, and warriors who originated in Scandinavia.  They were also known as Norsemen, which means "men of the North."  Scandinavia is a region in Northern Europe that includes Norway, Sweden, Denmark.  Point out these countries on a map or globe and discuss how they are peninsulas.   Some people call these the Nordic countries, but the Nordic countries include the Scandinavian countries AND Finland and Iceland.  Show your students these as well.  Eventually the Vikings spread to these countries too, as well as to Greenland and New Foundland (Vinland) and other areas.  Point out Greenland and New Foundland (Vinland) to your student also.    Have your student create a story disk and choose an appropriate place to put it.   (Source: Wikipedia)

Finland Shutterfold minit book by Wende

History -- Time Eras
Note the differences in the world from then until today. If you have photos of past generations-go back and show as many generations as you can. This story speaks of 7 generations. See math lesson for explanation of math used to figure the years between the generations.   Vikings have been known as Raiders, but many Vikings were not.  Here are some facts about Vikings.

Viking Life and survival- The Viking life was harsh. Most Vikings lived in cold lands with hard winters. Even in good years farmers struggled to provide enough food for their families. Vikings needed to know how to make things. Families isolated on farms had to be self-sufficient. The men had to be carpenters, blacksmiths as well as farmers. They had to be good in trade and they were good sailors.

Most of their living came from the land and they fished as well.

Viking Women-made butter, cheese and ale from the goats and cows they milked. They also made all the cloth the family needed. After sheep shearing they carded the wool. Then in every spare moment, they spun it into the thread from which they would weave cloth for clothes, blankets and wall hangings.

Viking children-helped on the family farm, caring for the poultry and pigs.

Vikings had great family loyalty. Often 3 generations lived together and helped in the family workshop and farm. (There is a reference to family loyalty in the story. The young ancestor get into a fight because they laughed at his ancestor. )

Famous Vikings- Eric the Red, Leif the Lucky (Eric’s son), Vladimir ruler of Rus (Viking settlers in Russia) was the earliest Viking saint.

Religion of the Vikings-Most were Pagan in the beginning. The Viking philosophy was get even…Forgiveness was not something they practiced..  As Christianity began to spread throughout the regions many converted.

Great reference book for more information: First Facts about the Vikings by: Jacqueline Morley

Vikings Lapbook from In the Hands of a Child (grades 3-8)

Social Studies -- Ancestors
What is an ancestor?  An ancestor is a parent or the parent of an ancestor.  Help your child understand that his ancestors include his parents and grandparents, his grandparents' parents, etc.  We give a special name to a person's first ancestor:   they are his parents.   And we give a special name to his parents' parents:  they are his grandparents.   After that we just put the word great in front each time we go back further.    So his grandparents' parents would be his great grandparents, and then their parents would be his great-great grandparents, and so on.  Look at the illustrations that start on the cover after you open the book.   The small boy is the child in the story.  The man with the briefcase is the boy's father.  The man with the hat and scarf is his father's father, the boy's grandfather.   The artist is the grandfather's father, the boy's great grandfather.    Now turn to the inside of the back cover.   The man with the top hat and walking cane is the artist's father, or the boy's great-great grandfather.  The round man is the father of the man in the top hat, or the boy's great-great-great grandfather.  The knight is the father of the round man, or the boy's great-great-great-great grandfather.  Finally, we come to the Viking ancestor, who is the father of the knight and who is the boy's great-great-great-great-great grandfather.  Whew!    (Note:  in the genealogy world, anything after great-great is shown by a number and then the word great.  So the title of the book would be My 5 great-grandfather... ...WAS A WARRIOR! )

If someone in your family studies genealogy (the family tree), see if you can get pictures (and names and dates!) of some of your student's ancestors.  Make copies of the photographs and return them to keep them safe.  Create a family tree collage picture by using butcher paper or other rolled paper or by taping a few sheets of paper together.  

Starting at the left, have your place a picture of himself, then a picture of his father (or mother but not both) to the right of that, then a picture of his father's father (or mother's father but again not both) beside that, then a picture of his father's father's father (or mother's father's father) beside that, etc.   Label each as Me, My Father, My Grandfather, My Great Grandfather, etc.   It might be nice to also include the persons' names under that.  

If you get to a point where you have names of ancestors but no pictures have your student draw what he might have looked like.  If you've got detailed information about an ancestor, have your student write a paragraph entitled "My ___________ was a __________!" and tell about him.  (See also the Language Arts Writing lesson below.)

Character:  Teasing/Family Loyalty
Nobody teases my family and gets away with it!

Discuss family loyalty.  Discuss fighting (not a good way to handle conflicts.) But sometimes fighting was necessary, especially in the days of the Vikings.  Discuss teasing and how it can cause others to become angry and provoke fights.

Language Arts: Contractions
Many contractions are used throughout the text of this story.  If this is a new idea to your student, explain what a contraction is.  Basically, a contraction is two words collapsed into one word.  We use contractions often when we speak and in informal types of writing.  The apostrophe in the contraction tells the reader that you have omitted a letter (or letters) from the original word; the apostrophe also tells where the letter(s) have been omitted.  For example,  doesn't  is does + not squeezed into one word-- the apostrophe tells us that the o is omitted). 

Here are some examples of contractions from the text.  You may wish to re-read the story asking your student to look for contractions.  When you find one...stop and figure out together what the original two words were and what letters would need inserted where the apostrophe is. 

didn't
I'm
I've
it's
Who's
He's
You're
don't
weren't

Prepared Contraction Cards Memory/Concentration Game
Directions:  Print one copy and cut out cards.  Use the same as you would use traditional memory cards matching the contraction to the correct words.

Contraction Links

Interactive (on-line) Contraction Quiz
Contraction Worksheet
Crossword Puzzle
Learn the Difference Between It's and Its


Vocabulary
Ancestor was explained in the Social Studies lesson.  You may wish to also discuss the word descendant, even though it is not used in the story.   Young Mark in our story was a descendant of the warrior.  That means he was directly related to the warrior.  Each of the men drawn on the inside covers was also a descendant.  The knight was the warrior's son, the round man was the warrior's grandson, the man with the top hat was the warrior's great grandson, the artist was the warrior's great-great grandson, the man with the hat and scarf was the warrior's great-great-great grandson, the man with the briefcase was the warrior's great-great-great-great-great grandson, and then young Mark was the warrior's great-great-great-great-great grandson!  Whew again!

Language Arts -- List making
Have your older student make a list of the differences and similarities between the ancestor and the grandson. (A younger child could just narrate for you to write or you could just discuss orally.)

Language Arts -- Discussion
In the beginning of the story young Mark screams when he sees the image in the mirror and poses the question to the reader “What would you do if you were me?” Have your child answer this.
 

Language Arts -- Creative Writing Ideas:  
1.  Explore with your student the idea of how the ancestor (from the past) landed himself in the present.  If you student is interested, have him write or narrate a story explaining this.

2. Have your child make up and illustrate a story about one of their ancestors coming to visit them.  How does their ancestor get to the present?  What is he or she like?  What do they do together, how are they similar, how are they different. Do they like this ancestor? Why or why not?

3. On the front and back inside covers there are drawings of the other ancestors. This shows the progression of the ancestors. Mark, then his dad and his dad’s dad, etc. They are also seen in the 3 ghost-like figures standing before the warrior grandfather in one of the pictures inside the book. Who do you think they were-what did they do for a living? Where did they live? Your child could draw pictures of them and illustrate the story you told them about his own family, or have your child make up a story about them and illustrate it. Or just answer the questions.
 

Language Arts-- Classification
Near the end of the story there is a page showing several pictures painted by the grandson.  Classify the different pictures using headings of Animals, Transportation, People, etc.  For fun see how many different ways you could classify the pictures.


Language Arts:  Using Dashes (lesson taken with permission from Alvah and Arvillah)
"(use this lesson with a more advanced grammar student):  
If you look through the text of this story, you will find lots of dashes (--).  What is a dash? When should your student use it?  The purpose of the dash is to add information--an explanation, a definition, an example, an aside, a shift in thought, or an appositive. Dashes can be used to set off words from the rest of the sentence when the interruption is sudden or the words are not closely related to the rest of the sentence.  Parenthesis seem to perform a similar function, but in actuality, their function is the opposite of dashes.   Parenthesis de-emphasize words by including them in the sentence while dashes emphasize the same information by setting it apart from the rest of the sentence.  Dashes can be used to tack something on to a sentence without creating a run-on sentence.  This is especially useful if that same information would be a fragment (incomplete sentence) on its own.   One word of warning-- don't go dash crazy!  When you use too many dashes, they lose their effect."

Here are the examples found throughout My Great....Grandfather Was a Warrior--

It was a giant carrying an ax,
with a beard and a Viking helmet --
and he was standing in my bathroom!

Me -- like him?

"Can other people see you?"
"Of course they can!" he said.  "But look,
it's getting late -- time for you to go to school,
and I'll go with you."

My friends began to laugh -- and that's how
the fight started.  Nobody teases my family and
gets away with it!

"All our tribe are great
herdsmen -- we know
everything there is to know about animals."

When at last we sat down
to eat, I was hungry -- but
not nearly as hungry as
my great-great-great-
great-great-grandfather!

Language Arts:  Using Font Size for Dramatic Effect
Can your student find examples in the text of words that are bigger than others?  (see list below).  Why would the author choose to do this?  (he wanted certain words to have dramatic effect or emphasis.)  How does this effect the reader?  Did you read the book differently to your student because of the font size?  This is exactly what you are suppose to do!   You can use this as an opportunity to discuss reading aloud (using different voices, expression, etc. when you read and why that is important to the story); you can also tell your student that he can make words in his stories REALLY LARGE when he wants to add dramatic effect or emphasis.  Of course, this is only acceptable in informal writing (not research or lab reports, etc.), but it's fine to do this in a short story.  You may want to pull out the Sunday comics to see if you can find other examples of REALLY LARGE writing for dramatic effect.    Just for fun-- you could let your student make up a comic strip and implement this technique. 

Examples from the text:

When Mark opens his mouth and howled, Aaaahhh!  

The words NO WAY!  are all capped an much larger than the surrounding text.

And at the end, "And watching him munch his way through plate after place, I realized there was one big difference between us:
OUR APPETITES!"

Art - Illustrations
Have your child note the toothpaste-filled open mouth, the scene where young Mark is struggling, the eating scene, and the expressions throughout the book. The pictures are more cartoon-like than realistic. The warrior ancestor looks like a big lovable giant instead of a mean Viking raider because of his expressions and countenance.  

Art - Drawing
Have your child make art of his own-like the young boy. Or try to draw one of the pictures in the story-maybe of the open mouth with toothpaste.

Art - Viking Art
Make similar drawings on cardboard, brown or gray paper to resemble animal skins and stone or carve drawings from soap.

Math

Counting
Younger children could count teeth, pictures, the number of "greats" in the title (5), etc.

Equal Sign
Show your student the page with drawing of the boy and equal sign and the warrior ancestor. (The NO WAY! page).   Ask your student if he knows that that symbol means?  Explain that we call it an equal sign and we use it math to show that the numbers on either side of it are the same.  For example 1+1=2.  1=2 is the same as 2.  So why does the illustrator use the equal sign with people on either side???   If your student cannot guess, re-read the sentence "Me -- like him?"   The drawing is saying the boy and the ancestor are alike!

Generations / Rounding Up
For older children explain that the five greats in the title equal 7 generations between the ancestors. You can count the ancestors and explain this to your child.  How many years are in an average generation?  Probably about 70 (If they lived long) so this ancestor was alive about 490 years ago. Explain how to round 490 years to the nearest hundred year....500 years.   So the Viking ancestor lived about 500 years. Approximately what year was that?    If the year is currently 2006, then 500 years ago would have been 1506.  

Science

Health -- Personal Hygiene
The boy in our story was brushing his teeth when his Viking ancestor appeared.  He was getting ready for school.  What other things might he have done to get ready? (took shower or bath or washed face, put on clean clothes, brushed or combed hair, etc.)   What are some ways your student practices good personal hygiene? (bathes often, keeps hair clean, washes hands before meals and after going to the restroom, brushes and flosses teeth, washes hands before and after working with food/cooking, etc.)   Why do we need to practice good personal hygiene?   (keeps our hair, teeth, and bodies healthier, etc.)

Vikings have been, traditionally, drawn as unkempt and unclean.   This is mainly due to the work of two men, Adam of Bremen and  Ibn Fadlan, who both wrote inaccurately about the Vikings.   It is now known that Vikings did take care with their personal hygiene.  They combed their hair, bathed weekly, washed their hands and faces daily (usually when they awoke), changed their clothing frequently, etc.   (Source:  Viking Answer Lady and Wikipedia)  

Health -- Nutrition
Compare the child's diet to that of his Viking ancestor.   What does your student eat?  What did the Vikings eat.  According the Viking Answer Lady's webpage, they ate a wide variety of foods.  While their homeland was cold and did not grow things well, they were traders and would trade for food wherever they went.  They ate a lot of fish, beef, pork, chicken, duck because that was what they had the most of.   They often dried, smoked, salted, or pickled their meat to make it last longer.   The Vikings also ate plums, apples, and berries.  For vegetables, Vikings ate carrots, parsnips, turnips, celery, spinach, peas, beets, onions, leeks, and mushrooms.  They also sometimes ate edible seaweeds!  For dairy, the Vikings primarily used cow's milk, although they also sometimes used goat's milk.   However, the Vikings did not use milk to drink but rather to make sauces, cheese, and butter!  For grains, they ate rye, barley, and oats.  They were used to  make flat breads and porridges. Barley was often used to make ale, a kind of drink which the Vikings enjoyed often.  The Vikings used a fireplace or hearth to cook their meals.  They usually ate a morning meal and an evening meal.  

Now discuss the various foods your student eats.   Who has a more nutritious diet...the Vikings or your student?!  It sounds like the Vikings ate pretty well.  Discuss the new food pyramid and why it is important that we eat nutritiously.   

MyPyramid.gov also has several worksheets, games, posters, etc. that might be fun.   

Animals
In our story, the boy was able to answer the teacher's questions about animals, especially the cows and pigs.  His warrior ancestor was proud of Mark and told him "All our tribe are great herdsmen -- we know everything there is to know about animals."

Why did the Warrior ancestor need to know about cows and pigs and other animals?  (They were farmers, herdsmen.) 

What kind of things would they need to know about these animals?  (How to care for them, feed them, raise them, use them for work such as plowing, milk them, use their meat. ) 

What other animals would Vikings probably have?

(Sheep, poultry, etc.)

How would they benefit from these animals?  How do we benefit today?
 

Just for Fun!

Make a Viking Helmet!  

Make an entire Viking costume!!

Have a Viking Meal!  Try either Donair, or Pea Soup, or Sole Fillet Casserole and serve with Viking Bread 

About the middle third of this webpage has several recipes.  

Play a Viking Board Game

Play the ancient Hnefatafl Viking Game, also known as Kings Table

Other Viking Games    

Research ideas to further extend the unit with an older student.

Have your older student research to see whether or not Vikings really wore horned helmets an why they even wore helmets.  

He could also research tools the Vikings used (see the warrior grandfather's ax on the inside of the back cover?).

Using our calculations from the math section, we determined the warrior  grandfather would have lived around 500 years ago.   Were Vikings around then?   The Viking Age was from about 793 to 1066.  For extra math, have your student determine how many "greats" the warrior ancestor should have been. (A lot! Celia has one family line back to 1575 and that is only her 10 great grandfather!!)  

Have your student research the Viking Age and present what he has learned.