Norwegian visitors

Norwegian visitors in our classroom.

Today we learned lots of new things about Norway form our Norwegian visitors. We sang Santa Lucia for them and listened to a Norwegian song. We learned how to speak a little Norwegian and count to 10.

 

Here are some of the facts we have gathered:

 

In Norway there are whales, small sharks, giant spider crabs, seals and fish. There are deer and otters. Bears and wolves are only dangerous when they are protecting their young. If you come across a bear you are meant to lie down and pretend you are dead. Every autumn there is a big debate in Norway about whether to shoot wolves or not because the wolves attack sheep and goats. There are wolves in Sweden as well and they come across the border in the forest. Norway is famous for its fjords which are steep mountains and deep sea lochs

Norway is most successful and famous for winter sports like skiing. In the Olympic games they got gold for kayaking and handball. The most popular sport is football.

King Harald ‘the fair haired’ was the first ruler of the whole of Norway and he ruled Orkney as well. In 1905 Norway became a kingdom again and the Queen was Maude who came from England. There are not many castles in Norway and they are quite small. Most buildings were made out of wood so they would have been no good for defence – they could have been set on fire! People were poor and did not have a rich local ruler to build the castles.

The food that they eat at Christmas is sheep  ribs or pork ribs. Traditional foods include sheep head and cod. They also eat reindeer, whales and elk. Our visitors really liked a traditional stew with beef and cabbage.

Norwegians celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. They like to go around the Christmas tree singing songs. Nisse, like a little gnome,  lives on a farm. It needs to be given porridge or it will be grumpy and ruin Christmas. There is a Loch Ness monster in a deep lake in Norway!