Family Reunion Readers Theater

Readers Theater is always a fun time, and even more so with my melodramatic stories which are short and funny. But, they are even funnier with a family reunion. As we all know who the hams are in our families, don’t we?

This past holiday season, when our family came together for Thanksgiving as well as Christmas, we did a readers theater three different times (it’s officially a family tradition now!)  What a BLAST! My son made sure he was the director, and he gave out 3-4 books that we all shared. Then he made impromptu costumes that we all … Continue reading

Shakespeare Word Challenge

Shakespeare word challenge

Thanks to mentalfloss.com, for helping us see another list of 20 words we wouldn’t be able to iterate today without the help of The Bard. Words such as assassination, bedazzled, cold–blooded, fashionable, scuffle, swagger, and more… It’s amazing what this guy brought to the table.

So, because of this, I thought of the Shakespeare Word Challenge for your kids: In your classroom, challenge your kids to come up with 10 words or phrases that Shakespeare created or first penned and then have them use them in a sentence. What this will do is help them realize that his “language” is not … Continue reading

Lesson Idea: The Top Ten Shakespeare List

Here is a clever idea that may engage your students in a short lesson plan, as well as open their eyes and minds to what Shakespeare has brought to the table.  Create a top ten Shakespeare list.  Here are some top ten Shakespeare ideas you can work with:

  • Characters (Puck, Hamlet, Othello… Who’s #1?)
  • Re-written story lines (i.e. Lion King or West Side Story, etc)
  • Speeches (To be, or not to be)
  • Quotes (Out, damn spot, out!)
  • Phrases (Method to his Madness)
  • Words (i.e. Alligator, Minds-eye, Dalmation, etc)

Let me know if you think of more, so I … Continue reading

Can Shakespeare’s Henry V be done in 30 tweets? #ShakesTweet

Fellow blogger and Shakespeare fan, Alan Peat, (@alanpeat) was a bit bored one day and decided for his 50th birthday to tweet all of Shakespeare’s plays in 50 tweets or less (not in one day, cuz, that’d be a bit crazy).  So, he knocked out his first “Shakestweet”, Henry V.

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Lesson idea: Kids take over Shakespeare’s Home

What a great “day in the life” experience!  Being a kid and working at Shakespeare’s home for the day!!!  I recently came across this a great little article out of the UK about some kids learning about the world of “work and decision making”.  But, what really hit my mind, was that they were in charge of the adults learning about Shakespeare.

kids at Shakespeare's trust Continue reading