Part of our Art Around the World - Scandinavian Norway/Sweden/Finland - VIKINGS! Includes the history, symbolism, pattern for the ship and shields - makes an AMAZING project, our students really enjoyed. 
 
Model magic or something similar for the bow and stern molded over their medium weight cardboard ship. Cardboard, foam core or craft sticks for the mast (held up/braced by a piece of cardboard inside the boat). We use a thick tracing paper for the sail, older kids ad strings, etc. for more detail. We study the symbolism and clan crests for their shield and sail designs. 
 
Includes images for detail, ships, examples of shields, outline ship to color, and template page for ship and shields. We've done 1st-middle school, adding much more detail to older students - usually have them wrap their ship first in paper mache and enlarge the template so they're pretty large.
 
Also fun to add to this for more depth and lengthening is creating a Viking Map.