Iceland Homeschool Unit Study

We said Lehitrahott to Israel and Goðan dag to Iceland. Due to a quarantine and subsequent ice/sleet/snow storm, we found ourselves with plenty of time at home to really dig into this study. Should you choose to study Iceland, just be warned that you may find your kids asking you for plane tickets to Iceland... don't ask me how I know, lol!

As we "travel" around the world, we always start with our reading from Passport to the World. I also checked the book Iceland: Enchantment of the World out from the library to use as a resource, reading a chapter here and there from it throughout the two weeks. I chose several novels to use to guide our studies. The first one we read was The Hardy Boys Book #48, The Arctic Patrol Mystery. While engaging and fun, this book actually contains a lot of facts about Iceland in it and is a great book to use for a literature based study of Iceland. I wrote a complete unit study plan that includes more than 40 writing prompts and 50 activities for exploration that encompass all of the scholastic subjects that is available for purchase on Teachers Pay Teachers. 

We studied Norse culture and made rock trolls out of clay.

We dug deeper into Geysers and how they work with this book.

We did a little experiment to simulate a geyser using diet soda and mentos. Then we watched several YouTube videos of actual geysers in Iceland. We also watched a video of how Icelanders use this geothermal energy to bake rye geyser bread.

We read a book about glaciers and found some of the major glaciers on a map of Iceland.

Our daughter painted a scene of the glaciers against the backdrop of the Northern Lights.

When we read that Polar Bears occasionally cross to Iceland from Greenland on ice bridges that form, she then painted this picture.

This led to a study of other animals that can be found in Iceland. Our children fell in love with the puffins and decided to draw some. They even drew entire puffin families.

We made an Icelandic inspired meal, complete with Salmon, Kartoflusalat (an Icelandic Potato Salad recipe from the book Iceland: Enchantment of the World), and Piparkokur (Icelandic Pepper Cookies). 

We have one daughter that absolutely loves horses, so we read Winter Pony.

Then I stumbled across this gem at the library. Horse Diaries is a series of historical fiction novels, and this first one, Elska, is about Iceland Circa 1000 A.D. I always try to plan learning around the interests of our children, so I used Elska to create a second literature based unit study of Iceland. 

Because this book takes place Circa 1000 A.D., we dove into a study of the Vikings. We read Leif the Lucky and made Viking ships. 

We already read several Magic Treehouse books, including Viking Ships at Sunrise, Narwhal on a Sunny Night, and Polar Bears Past Midnight.

Takk (thank you) for stopping by! For more homeschool inspiration check out the Homeschooling Tab at the top of the page and visit us on Instagram @Pocketful_of_Treasures.

***Pocketful of Treasures is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.***