Kennings and Riddles

Topics Year 2/3
This unit is part of Invaders and Settlers: Anglo-Saxons Art and Culture

Objectives

History

  • Understand that many different peoples have settled in Britain since the start of the Common Era and have helped shape the nation.
  • Understand connections between cultural, social and military history.

English

  • Identifying how language, structure and presentation contribute to meaning.
  • Discuss writing similar to that which they are planning to write in order to learn from its structure, vocabulary and grammar.
  • Build a varied and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of sentence structures.

Lesson Planning

The children learn about kennings and riddles and prepare their own to perform at their Anglo-Saxon feast.

Teaching Outcomes:

  • To understand the importance of telling riddles and using kennings in Anglo-Saxon society.
  • To recognise, understand and write kennings and riddles.

Children will:

  • Recognise kennings and create some of their own.
  • Understand how important kennings were in Anglo-Saxon poetry as descriptive language.
  • Answer riddles written in a typical poem structure, as kennings or as prose.

Provided Resources

  • Kennings; Anglo-Saxon riddles
  • Contemporary riddles
  • Kenning and riddle answer sheet
  • Riddle planning sheet

You Will Need

  • Individual whiteboards and pens