Norway Unit

Oh my goodness, I’ve left this poor Norway unit sitting here for almost two years. Now we get to see just how well I remember just what we did for our Norway Unit. This should be exciting! Let’s dig into this geography lesson now!

Norway Unit

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Norway Unit resources

This was possibly before we found Geography Now, or maybe it was around when we did discover it, so I’m not sure if we originally watched it as we went through the study, I’m still going to include the video.

and because I find flags amusing:

Norway unit book list

All right, my library had a great list of books for Norway, so here you go:

  • Norway– a good general overview of the country, I also checked out a similar book, but it’s out of print, so I didn’t link to it
  • The Race of the Brikebeiners– this race is still reenacted today as the ancient Norwegians rescued Prince Hakon from his enemies
  • Cecil the Pet Glacier– this was just amusing
  • Sniffer and Tinni: a true tale of amazing animal friendship– this was out when we did the unit, but it looks so cute and I wonder if it was the inspiration for Fox and the Hound
  • Why the Sea is Salt– I loved this retelling of a classic Norwegian tale, this copy is not the same as the one I checked out from the library
  • The Three Billy Goats Gruff– such a fun tale
  • Peter and the North Wind– I am really sad this was checked out when we studied Norway, I might need to go check it out
  • Who’s That Knocking on Christmas Eve– How a boy scared away hungry trolls on Christmas Eve, a very fun story
  • The Princess and the White Bear King– also known as East of the Sun and West of the Moon, it falls into the category of transformed bridegroom fairy tales
  • The Terrible Troll Bird– an absolutely horrible tale that had my kids laughing at it, for some reason a lot of the Scandinavian countries have stories of weird creatures
  • Reindeer– because Norway is known for its reindeer
  • The Little Reindeer– of course if you’re going to learn about reindeer you need a Christmas reindeer book
  • Marja’s Skis– I love slice of life books like this for learning about the country, while life may not be like this anymore, it gives a glimpse back to when we weren’t quite so homogenized because of ubiquitous travel
Norway unit geography 9th Europe

Norwegian meatballs

I found this Norwegian meatballs recipe, which worked quite well since Princess was getting braces that day, so we had a relatively nice and soft food for her to eat that night.

Norewegian meatballs main dish

Norwegian meatballs ingredients

  • 2 eggs lightly beaten
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 cup dry bread crumbs
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped onion (I minced it)
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon each ginger, nutmeg, and allspice
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 2 pounds ground beef
  • 1 pound ground turkey (the original recipe is ground pork, but that is not as easy to find)

Gravy ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 5 tablespoons flour
  • 4 cups beef broth (I used chicken broth because I make that regularly)
  • 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
  • dash cayenne pepper
  • dash white pepper

Let’s make the meatballs!

Norwegian meatballs Europe main dish
  1. Combine the eggs, milk, bread crumbs, onion and seasonings. Let stand until the crumbs absorb the milk. Add meat, then stur until well blended
  2. Form into 1 inch meatballs and place on a cookie sheet.
  3. Bake at 400 degrees about 20 minutes.
  4. While that is cooking, cook the onion in the butter, then stir in the flour and brown slightly.
  5. Slowly add broth, cook and stir until smooth and thickened. Blend in the cream, cayenne, and white pepper.

I served it with mashed potatoes.

Norwegian Meatballs

Norwegian meatballs Europe main dish

Norwegian meatballs and gravy

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 cup bread crumbs
  • 1/2 cup minced onion
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon of ginger, nutmeg, and allspice
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 2 pounds ground beef
  • 1 pound ground turkey
  • Gravy
  • 2 tablespoons minced onion
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 5 tablespoon flour
  • 4 cups beef broth
  • 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
  • dash cayenne pepper
  • dash pepper

Instructions

  1. In a bowl combine the eggs, milk, bread crumbs, onion, and seasonings. Let the crumbs and seasoning absorb the milk and then add the meats. Stir until blended together.
  2. Shape into 1 inch meatballs and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
  3. While that is baking, cook the onions in the butter until soft. Once they are soft, stir in the flour and let brown slightly.
  4. Slowly stir in the broth and heat to thicken, then add the cream and spices, and thicken again.
  5. Serve with the meatballs and mashed potatoes.

Norway Unit notebooking pages

Since I had so many books for Norway, I had lots of mini-books, AND Norway was the home of Edvard Munch, the artist of the Scream, so we had an entire mini-lesson on that.

Norway notebooking pages

The basis for this was our Europe Notebooking pages.

From there I added in (which can be found on the subscriber page if you join my newsletter)

  • Trolls- so many of the books had trolls in them, so we wrote what we learned
  • Edvard Munch lesson
  • Reindeer minibook
  • Why the sea is salty minibook- create your own reason
  • Skiing- what we learned about skiing from our Norway lesson
  • Arctic Fox
  • The Birkebeiner Race- I tried to find a video talking about it, but the first several were all either a video of the race itself, OR the AMERICAN Birkebeiner race. Oh wait, there are also skiboarding fails, totally what I’m looking for

More great learning fun

Norway Unit as we learn our way around the world

“Northern Lights outside Tromso, Norway” by diana_robinson is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0


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