Poetry Kennings reading and writing English literacy KS2 KS3 Anglo-Saxons Vikings

A simple medium-length literacy lesson - 1 hour to 1 & 1/2 hours - about kennings, a type of poetry associated with Anglo-Saxon and Viking cultures. Aimed at Upper KS2 or lower KS3.

Lesson structure:
-Recap of nouns, verbs and turning nouns into verbs.

• Reading and interpreting simple kennings.
• The typical structure of kennings
• Metaphorical language in kennings
• Students writing their own kennings
• Students perform their own kennings to the class, who try to work out what the subject of the kennings is.

Ideas! :)

This is a simple lesson, but, with a bit of extra flair, can be turned into something memorable and magical! When I did this with my “top” year 5 class, we turned the classroom into an Anglo-Saxon banquet hall. During the recitation stage, we rearranged the classroom, lit candles, drank “mead” (apple juice, honey, cinnamon…), shouted “Wassail!” and drank the mead when somebody guessed a kenning correctly. We had been making Anglo-Saxon brooches and Sutton-Hoo helmets in our art/DT lessons, so we also wore those to make the whole experience a bit more immersive.

I’d look through and edit to make sure it is suitable for your class. Enjoy!