Teaching on Your Own

Learning on your own in Lejre Land of Legends

We embrace the open school and collaboration on student learning, which is why we have prepared a number of teaching courses as inspiration for those who want to use Lejre Land of Legends as a place for your teaching – an alternative learning space, an extra classroom. The courses are examples of how teaching out here can be framed and qualified.

The courses are designed to fit into your everyday life. They are therefore based on the Common Goals (FM). Potential skill and knowledge objectives are stated in each course, and we have also made suggestions for learning objectives. We also suggest what impact the learning space can have on the students’ all-round development.

The courses have content and activities for before, during and after the visit.

If you are interested in other courses in Lejre Land of Legends, you can find them here:

Guidance for teachers

You come to a learning space with high ceilings. In Lejre Land of Legends you have 43 hectares of natural landscape to explore. If your visit is to be more than just an excursion, you need to have a meaning and an intention for your visit. It’s a very special space that not all students are familiar with. Of course, you must take care of the nature, the animals, the historical environments and the reconstructed objects that have been made. Some animals are in their enclosures, do not enter them. Some animals walk freely. The animals don’t like to be shouted at or chased.

We embrace the open school and collaboration on student learning, which is why we have prepared a series of teaching courses as inspiration for those who want to use Lejre Land of Legends as a place for your teaching – an alternative learning space, an extra classroom. The courses are examples of how teaching out here can be framed and qualified.

The courses are designed to fit into your everyday life. They are therefore based on the Common Goals (FM). Potential skill and knowledge objectives are stated in each course, and we have also made suggestions for learning objectives. We also suggest what the learning space can mean for the students’ all-round development.

Duration

The class explores Lejre Land of Legends on their own.

Guidance for teachers

The Viking carpenter

With this material you can learn how the Vikings were able to build the King’s Hall using fractions and skillful craftsmanship.

This material gives you the opportunity to work with mathematics by taking the King’s Hall in Lejre Land of Legends as a starting point. This material is based on “building on clamp.” Paper and writing had been invented abroad, but in the world of the Vikings, oral tradition prevailed. This meant that when they had to build ships or houses, they didn’t have blueprints as we know them.

They built on clamp.

It’s a term from wooden shipbuilding. It’s a building method where you build with the experience you have from other times you’ve built. We know very little about number symbols from the Viking Age and we don’t know how they calculated. We do know that they had measurements like: inches, feet and cubits.

“The Viking Carpenter” was donated to Lejre Land of Legends by Lejre Municipality in the summer of 2022. The material was created by Birgitte Lindhardt for Lejre Municipality.

The Viking carpenter

Duration

On your own. The class may explore Lejre Land of Legends and Kongehallen on their own.

The Viking Carpenter – student

The Viking Carpenter – teacher’s guide

Henrik Harpestreng’s garden

Harpestreng’s garden is a reconstruction of the medieval doctor Henrik Harpestreng’s herb garden, which he used in his capacity as physician to Erik Plovpenning. It is a medieval doctor’s plant collection. In the 13th century, doctors and botanists systematized plants according to their healing properties.

The teacher completes the course on their own.

A great website provides information about Henrik Harpestreng, the medicine garden, plants, medicine production and disease treatment.

www.harpestrengshave.dk

It encourages the class to work with disease treatment and healing of all kinds of ailments.

For biology teachers, students can get acquainted with a number of herbs, which they will try to classify in groups. Through discussions in the students’ working groups, different classification systems will come up and Linnaeus’ system can be mentioned, among others. Today’s genetically based classification can also be included.

Henrik Harpestreng’s garden

Duration

On your own.
The class explores on their own.

Information sheet about Spring plants in Henrik Harpestreng’s Garden

Information sheet about Autumn plants in Henrik Harpestreng’s Garden

Tools in peacetime / weapons in wartime

This booklet should be used together with the booklets “Dane Axe”, “Spear” and “Shield” You can also find them online on the Lejre Land of Legends website. The info sheets “Tools in peacetime, weapons in wartime” about the “Dane Axe”, “Shield” and “Spear” are for those who love Viking weapons. If you want to immerse yourself in them, welcome here..

In the Viking Age, arming was both a right and a duty. Viking freemen were required to carry weapons and there were strict requirements to ensure that you had the weapons necessary to participate in the national defense (the protection of the country). You had to pay fines if you failed to show up at the armory or if there were shortcomings in the required equipment. This is enshrined in the oldest surviving legal texts in Scandinavia, albeit from the Middle Ages, but they date back to the Viking Age. The Gulatings and Frostatings laws state that every free man had to possess three basic weapons: spear, shield and either a sword or axe.

Our knowledge of the Viking Age and Viking weapons comes from both historical and archaeological sources. In Lejre Land of Legends’ historical workshops, we reconstruct both the Vikings’ weapons and their use of weapons.

Tools in peacetime / weapons in wartime

Duration

On your own.
The class explores on their own.

“Tools in peacetime & weapons in wartime”

“The Dane Axe”

“The shield”

“The spear”

On your own in Lejre Land of Legends

The booklets below take you on a tour through Lejre Land of Legends. Some of them will only take you to a specific time period, while others will take you across the different time periods we have.

These booklets are designed so you can explore Lejre Land of Legends on your own – this means that you control the visit with your class. The booklets are intended for the grade levels highlighted in the booklets.

The 10 booklets are:

• “… and made the Danes Christian“: an interdisciplinary Christian studies and history course for grades 7-9.
• “Food of all times“: an interdisciplinary course in history, culinary arts and nature/technology for middle school.
• “Breve fra fronten: om stormen på Dybbøl” : an interdisciplinary course in Danish and history for grades 7-9.
• “The world of the dead“: an interdisciplinary course in Christianity and history for 3rd grade.
• “Fatherland and Song“: a dance course for 1st-2nd grade, 3rd-4th grade, 5th-6th grade and 7th-9th grade. The program can be made interdisciplinary with music.
• “How have people through the ages…”: a history course for 5th-6th grade. The course can be cross-curricular with other subjects such as Danish, crafts or design.
• “Encounters with Hans Christian Andersen“: a Danish course for 3rd-4th grade.
• “Something about names“: a course about names for grades 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-9.
• “Rituals of Sacrifice“: a Christian studies course for grades 7-9.
• “Religious symbols“: an interdisciplinary course in Christian studies and visual arts for 5th grade.

On your own in Lejre Land of Legends

Duration

On your own. The class explores on their own.

“… and made the Danes Christian”

“Food of all times”

“Letters from the front: About the storm at Dybbøl”

“The world of the dead”

“Fatherland and songs”

“How have people through the ages…”

“Meetings with Hans Christian Andersen”

“Something about names”

“Sacrificial rituals”

“Religious symbols”