Aim: Happiness for Helga

• Instructional Objectives:  Students find out about the history and significance of trolls in Norway's culture.  Students create their own troll based on a list of characteristics.  Students surf a list of websites, to find the answers about Norway's culture, economy, history, geography, and culture. 

• Time Required: Helga's Dowry can be read in one class period.  The following activities can be completed throughout the week, taking approximately a period each.

• Advance Preparation: When I first read Helga's Dowry, I immediately fell in love with its feminist message.  Helga truly is a role model for all women and trolls!  I was not 100% sure where this story had its roots from.  Taking clues from the book, I confirmed that Odin is a major god in Norse (Norway's) mythology.  Norway is also nicknamed Land of the Trolls.
• Materials: One copy of Create A Troll, Norway Treasure Hunt, and Magic for each student.
• Vocabulary: dowry, Odin, fjord

Activity #1:  ***Have students complete this activity before reading the book.  Students can go to the following sites to learn more about the characteristics of trolls: Trolls in Folktales,    Trolls, History of the Trolls.  Give each student a copy of Create A Troll.  This was taken from a  project created by The Avalon East School Board.  Each student will choose one of the trolls and draw what they think the troll would look like.  They can then go to and see the drawings made by the students of The Avalon East School.  

Activity #2: Have students go to  Knowing Norway Treasure Hunt.  There are a list of websites and questions that  need to be answered from those websites.  Click on the link for a printable version.

Activity # 3:   Children receive messages from the very start about their gender.  Use this book as a springboard for showing equality amongst males and females.  You can learn a lot about a child's feelings and thoughts by having them answer these higher level thinking questions based on the book Helga's Dowry.  Students can learn more about an old fashioned Norwegian Wedding here.

• Activity #1 Extension:  Students can go to this site by Disney to get directions on how to create their own trollsFamilyFun: Cork Trolls.  Provide students with inspiration by giving them each a copy of the picture from  http://lidenbygden.com/troll/tavla.gif, have them create their own short stories featuring their troll they created and this little town.

• Activity #2 Extension:  NOVA online (the educational show on PBS) has a whole feature on vikings.  Students can click here to see how their names would be written in runes, learn about and create their own tree-ring timelines,  and explore a viking village.  Students can go to Enchanted Learning for a coloring printout and quiz on Norway's flag.

• Activity #3 Extension:  Using the items on Helga's Dowry, students come up with their own ways on how they would get the items.  Students then put that situation into a short poem.  Magic- A Helping Hand

• Homework:  Students will choose a character from the book and will  write a love letter to another character in the book.  This is a good exercise in seeing if students understand point of view.  For instance, if they choose to be Helga, she would not write a nice letter to Lars.  Another good exercise is for students to create their own dowries.

• Evaluation:   In Activity #1, you want to see that your students can use their own imaginations, while following directions. Activity #2 lets children explore websites, but they are looking for specific answers to questions, you will be able to see if they can use the computer to get information.  Use the answers from Activity #3 as feedback to see what values and ideas your children have about families and marriage.  Although you do not want to interfere with the customs and traditions taught in the home, you will see if you need to make more of an effort to provide examples of women outside the stereo-typical roles.