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Brilliant ways to bring DREADFUL DRAGONS AND VICIOUS VIKINGS to life in your classroom

Here are some creative ideas to inspire you to Share a Story. Share brilliant characters, amazing worlds, jaw-dropping adventures and talented authors and illustrators, both classic and contemporary.

1Start with a WOW!Pupils will debate what to do with a

mystery egg.

Paint an avocado in a strange colour and dramatically present it to the class as an unusual egg you found in your garden. What animal could have laid the egg? Is it a good idea to keep the egg in the classroom and wait for it to hatch? Show the class images of dragon eggs and hold a debate about what to do with your egg.

2Get up, get active. Pupils use role-play to train a

given animal.

Read chapter nine up to the end of p.114 and discuss the different methods Hiccup uses to train Toothless. How do these relate to ways the children have tried to persuade someone to do something? Can they share examples? Give groups of children a picture of an animal. Can they act out how they would use the list of six motivational approaches to train their new animal? For example, how would they appeal to a gorilla’s vanity?

3No pencils allowed.Pupils will make up dragon jokes and

replace “boring” verbs. In the story, Toothless loves listening to Hiccup’s jokes. Cut a selection of jokes in half so the punchlines are separate. Give each pupil half of a joke before setting them off to find their partner. Once every joke is complete, each pair can share their jokes. Using similar structures, can the class invent dragon-themed jokes? Next, present the class with simple verbs such as look, went, ate and got. Giving examples like “The dragon went into the cave”, challenge pupils to replace the boring verbs.

If you haven’t used the Horrible Histories books with your class, Vicious Vikings makes a great follow-up read. Your pupils will love finding out about Viking gods and how different life was for Viking children. There are lots of fun ways to share unusual Viking facts with other classes, from freeze-frames with authoritative voice-overs, to learning the words to The Viking Song.

7 Why not make this

your next book? Horrible Histories: Vicious Vikings

by Terry Deary & Martin Brown Published by Scholastic

Published by Hodder Children’s Books

6 Keep the adventure going…

Discuss the Gronckle fact file on p.36 and use as a stimulus for creating dragon card games such as Top Trumps or why not re-make classic board games to share? Dragon marionettes and shadow puppets also make a great art and design project and can be used for retelling episodes from the book.

5Word play.Pupils will design their

own dragons.

Look at the Draconika website (www.draconika.com/types.php) and explore different types of dragons and their common features. Challenge the class to create their own dragon nursery like the one described in chapter two. Can they each design their own dragon with carefully detailed features? Once they have drawn and painted their pictures, help the pupils create interesting names by exploring how to write kennings i.e. “fire-breather”.

4The writer’s workshop.

Pupils will write about how to care for a dragon.

Set the task of creating a new class book called How to Look After a Dragon. Collect ideas of what this book would contain, thinking about caring for a dragon from an egg. Ask children in pairs to choose a heading they’d like to write about. Show the class how to use a selection of books and the internet to research caring for pets. Perhaps they can find out what larger animals need to stay healthy? Collate pages into a book and share with another class.

Created in association with

Years 3&4

LESSON PLAN

Find more great ideas based on brilliant books at worldbookday.com/resources