Viking Longship
History · Year 3–Year 6
Tap the parts to name them: sail, oars, figurehead, steering oar.
About the longship
A Viking longship at sea, with its parts to name. Tap the sail and the board says sail, with one line on what it was for. Tap the steering oar and it says it was on the right hand side, which is where the word starboard comes from. Nothing is typed and nothing is dragged.
The parts are the ones that explain how the ship worked: a square wool sail for the open sea, oars for rowing up a river or when the wind dropped, shields hung along the side out of the way, and a hull of overlapping planks that let the whole ship bend in the waves.
There is no keel on the diagram, and it is worth saying why out loud: a longship's keel was shallow, which is exactly why the Vikings could sail up rivers and run the ship straight onto a beach rather than needing a harbour. In a side view it is under the water, so the tool would have to lift the ship out of the sea to draw it.
The labels are off to begin with, so the picture is a question. Show puts all seven up at once, and Next walks through them if you would rather go round the ship in order.
How to use it on your whiteboard
- 1Tap a part of the ship. Its name appears beside it and what it was for is written underneath.
- 2Tap it again to take the label off, or tap Clear to start over.
- 3Tap Next to work round the ship in order, from the figurehead to the steering oar.
- 4Tap Show to put every label up at once, for reading rather than testing.
Questions
- Why is the steering oar on the right?
- Because that is where the Vikings put it, and it is where the word starboard comes from: the steer board side. The other side was the port side, which is the one you tied up against.
- Why are the shields hung on the side?
- It kept them out of the way at sea. They came off when the ship landed.
- Can the class see all the labels at once?
- Yes. Tap Show. It starts with them hidden, because a diagram with the answers on it is a picture rather than a question.