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help starting Shakespeare with my 6yo ...


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I'm hoping to do a Shakespeare intro before the school year runs out (related to our incorporating more Ambleside Online materials, and also more classics a la "the thread" :)). My oldest is 6 years old. Any ideas? Would you start with some Shakespeare bio and appropriate history? favorite plays? Midsummer Night's Dream is the common suggestion for little ones, but Button wants things to Make Sense so I'm not sure that would work.

 

Here's what I've got:

1. We have old, not-beautifully illustrated retellings from Lamb and Nesbit.

2. This recent thread was inspiring. It included a suggestion for Weiss' recordings and a link to this blog page by Elizabeth Foss, also inspiring.

3. For mama-education, Milestones Academy pointed me to Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare, OOP but I'm going to try and borrow/buy a copy.

 

Missing are pretty pictures; does anyone have favorite illustrated Shakespeare books for young ones?

 

I am thinking maybe to do Shakespeare Fridays for the rest of the year ... anyhow, :bigear::bigear::bigear:!

 

I'm editing to add links to things suggested in posts below:

 

Muppets! look here for Muppet Shakespeare.

Scripts adapted for children: Weinstein's Shakespeare scripts.

Picture book bios: Diane Stanley's Bard of Avon and Aliki's William Shakespeare and the Globe.

Teacher background on political and hidden undercurrents/meanings in Shakespeare: Shadowplay.

Picture book retellings:

_Bruce Coville has several picture books of Shakespeare stories: here's his Twelfth Night.

_ The "Shakespeare Can be Fun" series, many if not all by Burdett: here is that version of Twelfth Night.

General teaching resource: the Folger Shakespeare Library's Teacher Resource page.

Inexpensive fingerpuppets & stage &c: Masterpuppet Theater.

Shakespeare for children series at the Book Depository: no reviews there, but free shipping, books under $10 each, and good rec. on this thread. Each are about 64 p.

Edited by serendipitous journey
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The Bruce Coville picture books are lovely and I think the retellings are just as good as Nesbit's, but more accessible for littles. I second the Jim Weiss cd too.

 

Also, you can find the BBC animated tales versions on YouTube for free. They use the plays' real language. And just take him to go see a production. We take our kids to the Free for All at the Shakespeare Theatre every year since they were 5 yo and they love it.

 

We actually did a shortened Shakespeare production with the kids when mine were 6 yo. It can be done! There's a book of scripts by Elizabeth Weinstein that I adapted for us to use.

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Oh, and the Diane Stanley biography is good, though there are others that are also nice.

 

And the Folger has some nice activity suggestions on their site - I especially have found reading something like some of the rhyming speeches from Dream alongside Dr Seuss to be useful in illuminating meter for kids.

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Bruce Coville has picture books on Shakespeare's plays. I have not seen them but I have heard good things about them.

 

The Bruce Coville picture books are lovely and I think the retellings are just as good as Nesbit's, but more accessible for littles. I second the Jim Weiss cd too.

 

Also, you can find the BBC animated tales versions on YouTube for free. They use the plays' real language. And just take him to go see a production. We take our kids to the Free for All at the Shakespeare Theatre every year since they were 5 yo and they love it.

 

We actually did a shortened Shakespeare production with the kids when mine were 6 yo. It can be done! There's a book of scripts by Elizabeth Weinstein that I adapted for us to use.

 

ooooh, thank you both for the Coville rec: the books look lovely, here's a link to his Twelfth Night as a sample for the interested. I did find a local production of the Tempest coming up soon by a good company, so maybe I'll try to get us ready for that ..

 

RE the Weinstein scripts: how many children were involved? Until Bot-bot's a bit older, it is just Button, me, and Bot-bot who is good for a word or two when prompted :D.

 

ETA: here's a link to Diane Stanley's Bard of Avon, and one to Aliki's William Shakespeare and the Globe, both picture-book backgrounds for Shakespearean studies.

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This is the Shakespeare with Children script book I mentioned - it's all the real language (a few minor changes, but not too many) but they're all cut to be between 20-40 minutes long. They're meant for a class of kids, so they have about 20 parts in each one, though some of the scripts leave in things to give kids lines that anyone trying to really cut a play would have cut out - for example, the masque is kept in The Tempest (parts for little girls who want to dress as fairies).

 

When we did it, we went perhaps a little overboard (we rented a professional theater) but you could easily just do it low key. Last year we did The Tempest. This year I'm running it as an at cost (just expenses to rent the space) summer camp for two weeks and we're doing Midsummer Night's Dream. My 7 yos are playing Lysander and Oberon and we've just started running lines.

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My kids are obsessed with Gnomeo & Juliet....does that count? :tongue_smilie:

 

My daughter loves this movie - we have told her its based on a Shakespeare play but that is as far as we got :)

 

I would probably start with the history and bio and a bit of geography. He is also quoted all over the place and I might teach my daughter some of the quotes as she loves saying quotes like this out loud at inappropriate moments.

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...

When we did it, we went perhaps a little overboard (we rented a professional theater) but you could easily just do it low key. Last year we did The Tempest. This year I'm running it as an at cost (just expenses to rent the space) summer camp for two weeks and we're doing Midsummer Night's Dream. My 7 yos are playing Lysander and Oberon and we've just started running lines.

 

Aha! You are clearly Amazing at Theater. :lol: also at least Somewhat Organized. This sounds delightful!

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ETA: here's a link to Diane Stanley's Bard of Avon, and one to Aliki's William Shakespeare and the Globe, both picture-book backgrounds for Shakespearean studies.

 

We read the Aliki book this winter and enjoyed it.

 

We're reading the Poetry for Young People Shakespeare now, it has poems and parts of plays interspersed (we read "Friends, Romans, Countrymen" yesterday). Just trying to get a introduction to the language. Then we'll try some Lambs. At least that's my current plan.

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We have been working through the Lamb versions as they come up through Ambleside. I've found that my girls most enjoy acting it out with figurines... We have about a million Papo figurines so we can rustle up a cast pretty easily but I imagine paper dolls or Lego people would work, too. I assign characters and my two older move them around and repeat stirring lines. The youngest moves the scenery.

 

Enjoy!

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The Bruce Coville picture books are lovely and I think the retellings are just as good as Nesbit's, but more accessible for littles. I second the Jim Weiss cd too.

 

Also, you can find the BBC animated tales versions on YouTube for free. They use the plays' real language. And just take him to go see a production. We take our kids to the Free for All at the Shakespeare Theatre every year since they were 5 yo and they love it.

 

We actually did a shortened Shakespeare production with the kids when mine were 6 yo. It can be done! There's a book of scripts by Elizabeth Weinstein that I adapted for us to use.

 

:iagree:

 

We only read Coville until ds was older and could read the original himself.

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Oh, I forgot this because we haven't yet used them, but in January I bought these finger puppets to help us with keeping track of characters. My blog-friend Brandy recommended them on this post.

 

You cannot do a Shakespeare study without YOU reading SHADOWPLAY first.

 

A Midsummer Night's Dream has absolutely nothing to do with fairies. ;)

 

These are both discounted on Amazon right now -- about $6 for the puppets, and $11 (steeply discounted) for Shadowplay. (I try to buy at our independent bookstore often, but have to admit I took advantage of these prices ... sigh. Everything is a compromise. :tongue_smilie:)

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http://www.amazon.com/MacBeth-For-Kids-Shakespeare-Can/dp/0887532799

 

Did someone already mention the Burdett books? We went to London last year and we read several of the books mentioned above and they liked those, too. But the one that is worn from love is the Shakespeare Can Be Fun book.

 

Hope that will link you . . . if not, just go to Amazon and check it out.

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