It has been poetry week this week in English, and the children have been learning about Kennings poetry. This is a form of poetry where something is described without any direct reference. Kenning is an Old Norse word meaning to ‘express a thing in terms of another’. It links closely with our Viking topic, as the Vikings used Kennings phrases to describe important objects. For example, they would call their favourite axe a ‘skull-splitter’, and their favourite sword a ‘blood-taker’. The children listed nouns, adjectives and verbs associated with Vikings, then matched pairs of words to create Kennings phrases. Finally, they chose which phrases they would put into a poem, wrote it up and illustrated it. Many of the children then volunteered to perform their poems in front of the class to much applause!
