Shakespeare -Tell me your fav Bard ideas

[Lux Et Veritas Academy]

I have a 5th & 8th grader this fall. How have you used Shakespeare with your children? How have you made it fun? I also want to pull some of it in for my 2nd grader- Thanks in advance!

[Makita]

I don't have experience with Shakespeare myself, but DH and I attend the Oregon Shakespeare festival for at least one play every year. This year (just a week ago), we saw Othello and preforming in the courtyard, prior to seating, were The Hobart Shakespeareans, a group of students from Los Angeles. Inspired by their performance, I bought the book Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire by Rafe Esquith. It is a fast read and is certainly inspiring! He gives lots of ideas of how his students (5th graders) put on an unabridged Shakespeare play every year. It is worth checking out. :)

[Laurie]

These are some of the resources I'm using with my dc to familiarize them with the stories:

 

*Tales From Shakespeare (Marcia Williams)

*More Tales From Shakespeare (also by Williams)

Each of these books features 7 plays in comic strip form.

 

*The "Shakespeare Can Be Fun!" series of books by Lois Burdett, a Canadian elementary school teacher (example of title: Much Ado About Nothing For Kids) These books are written in rhyming couplet form by the teacher and illustrated by young students.

 

*Shakespeare, The Animated Tales: a dvd collection

 

*Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare (Diane Stanley)

 

*A Treasury of Shakespeare's Verse (Gina Pollinger)

 

*William Shakespeare and the Globe (Aliki)

 

*Tales from Shakespeare (Charles and Mary Lamb)

 

*Shakespeare Stories and Shakespeare Stories II (Leon Garfield)

[Dayle in Guatemala]

One thing my dc like to do is rewrite a scene in today's language or with a modern setting.

[MIch elle]

under Hamlet & Hamlet cont'd I have info on our Shakespeare studies - linked in my sign.

[frogpond1]

I just went to a Shakespeare in the Park - and came home and was telling my husband how wonderful it was and my ds (going into 8th) and ds (going into 4th) knew the whole plot even some key elements like yellow stockings etc. and they jumped in and finished me off. I asked, "How in the world did you know all those details?" Well, I forgot I had bought them the picture book Bravo Mr. William Shakespeare and all my kids had read it for fun on their own.

 

As for doing something planned- reading it and then actually going to a play really worked well for us. We the different Shakespeare for Children books from http://www.mainlesson.com. I really wish my 8th grader had been to the play with me. He would finally be able to get some of the humor and some of the many classical references. Both plays I watched this year had Latin in them which was so fun now that I'm learning more Latin.

 

Have you though of putting on an act? I'd do it after watching an actual production though. Shakespeare really needs to be read aloud to enjoy it.

 

Have fun! I'm thinking of going to more plays than two this year myself.

[rockala]

We have used Edcon Publishing books for understanding and then try to find a show to see locally or act it out in a co-op setting or perhaps rent a good version.

 

We did Romeo and Midsummers this way- even though edcon said Midsummers night dream was third grade, I find it really does not matter. The older kids really undersatnd it better too so I don't go by that much. it is a workbook that has scenes and questions/vcab etc.

 

I am teaching it in a co-op setting this year, so I want to use the 5th grade level for sake of all. they offer Othello, Julius Caesar, King Lear, the taming of the Shrew and Alls well that ends well.

 

Hope that helps,

Kathy

[Cedarmom]

We listen to the play as we read it. There are some excellent audio's at audible.com. Then we watch a movie and/or see the play. We did some Shakespeare in the park this summer. We have also acted out scenes.

 

We went to see Hamlet at a a park this summer. It rained the whole time. By the end of the play we were all drenched and cold. The teenagers got in the car and said, "Shakespeare rocks!" Life is good.

[HollyinNNV]

Well, the most time-efficient authentic experience is to go see it IRL. Coincidentally we went to see Shakespeare last night. We saw King Richard III. DD (14) got most of the humor and understood the plot line. DS (8) told me that it was about "Richard wanting to be king. He kills lots of people. He even had a guys head in a bloody bag. There was fighting and swords. There were ghosts. It was creepy. I liked it." What was surprising is that I did no pre-explanations with him. I was really curious to his reaction. It kept his attention and he said nothing about the language. That was surprising to me. I thought he'd make mention of it. Richard III is pretty lengthy (5 acts). The production we saw went from 7:30 PM to 10:30ish. I know a few people who have been to watered down Shakespeare just for kids. They said that they felt like the audience was a sea of movement and that their kids had a hard time staying focused. Going to a regular Shakespeare production was probably more helpful for ds. He was not distracted by folks around him.

 

This approach is similar to my feelings about teaching music: listen to it, go to diverse concerts and play an instrument. Keep it relatively simple. I think the best thing, if you live anywhere near good Shakespeare productions, is to go see it.

 

JMHO,

Holly

[Testimony]

My older son got a book on how to draw comic book superheros. Well, he used this idea to narrate back his Shakespeare stories to me. He made the characters into superheros.

 

I also saw on the AO group that someone's son made baseball cards out of the characters and discussed about the characters that way.

 

Also, some families made puppets out of the characters (she got them on the web). Then they had the puppets tell the story. Since they are plays, that makes the most sense.

 

Blessings in your homeschooling journey!

 

Sincerely,

Karen

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

[Chris in VA]

Just wanted to add that my dd8 thoroughly enjoyed Midsummer and Hamlet books "by" Bruce Colville. They are picture books. I was so taken with them that I may buy them for dd for Christmas. We got more than just the gist of the story--he uses some of the phrases from the actual plays. The illustrations are wonderful and inviting. Might be nice to have your olders read to the younger, or have everyone sit in.

 

Also, I don't know the author or title, but there's a teacher who did Shakespeare every year with her 2nd graders, and she wrote a short version of Romeo and Juliet as her kids learn it. It's done in rhyme, and each page has child-drawn illustrations, as well as little sidebar letters the kids wrote as the characters, and journal entries, too. It really is neat. Your younger child may appreciate just knowing the plot.

[Janie]

I would love to see the Hobarts perform! I've read Esquith's books and watched the DVD The Hobart Shakepeareans. It inspired me to try my own classroom attempt at this using the OOP book Shake Hands with Shakepeare this year. We'll see how it goes!

[Kristiana]

Come visit me next summer and we'll go to the Utah Shakespearean Festival together! :001_smile: We're tentatively planning a trip next July to see either As You Like It or A Comedy of Errors.