Ask students to restate facts and details in their own words.

Ask: What is the difference between a Viking ship and a Chinese ship? How were they alike?

Ask: Which ship was your favorite from the text?

Ask: Have you ever seen or been on a ship or boat? What was it like? Compare the boat that you have experienced with your favorite craft from the story. 

Discuss any other information from the story that students found interesting. 

Word Work

Contractions
Explain to students that a contraction is a combination of two words where the apostrophe represents letters that have been left out when the two words are joined.

Use the following example from the story: didn't, page 7.

Ask: Can you find any other contractions in the story?

Write these on a chart as students find them. Discuss what two words have been joined to form the contraction. Write these on the chart alongside the contraction.

Ask: What two words have been used to make the new word?

Have students look closely at the words to identify which letter or letters have been dropped in favor of the apostrophe.

Ask: What letter has been dropped?

Make a list of the contractions and the two words used to make them. Have students think of other contractions. Add them to the list.

Nouns
Explain to students that nouns are naming words. Use the following example from the book: boat page 4. Can you find any other nouns in the story?

Adjectives
Explain to students that an adjective helps describe a noun. Use the following example from the book:

fast (adjective) boat (noun), page 4..

Ask: Can you find any other adjectives in the story?

Introduce the second worksheet. Explain to students that it is related to the work just covered on nouns and adjectives.

Learning through Visual Devices
Have students look at the map on page 10. Match this with a map of the world either in the classroom or from the Web. Point to where your students live. Now show them where the Vikings were traveling on the global map.

This will help students to imagine the distances and areas traveled by the Vikings.

Writing Link
Have students choose one of the ships talked about in the text. Think about what it may have been like to be a sailor in those days. Students may need to do further research. The library or internet may help. Write about a journey of discovery in which they participate as a sailor.

Students should include information such as the following:

• Where they went
• What they did, jobs on board the ship.
• What they ate
• Other people on board the ship
• Feelings they had during the journey

Assessment

• Review students' completed comprehension worksheet in order to assess whether they understood the reading.
• Have students write sentences or paragraphs using selected words from the vocabulary list, or word work examples from the lesson, in order to demonstrate their understanding of word meaning.
• Monitor students' knowledge of parts of speech, nouns and adjectives, and contractions.