To Be or not to Be! ...That is the Question....Shakespeare Learning Camp (part 1)!

I have the great pleasure of co-leading a group of 15 eager students, excited to learn about Shakespeare. We have three sessions set up and each session will consist of the first hour being an academic session about Shakespeare, his life, his works, the Globe Theatre etc...The second hour will be the children acting out scenes from Midsummer Night’s Dream in a Reader's Theatre form.

The first session we had was great. We started out by brainstorming about Shakespeare and me reading a biography about him. I asked the children how many Shakespeare plays they knew, what they knew about his life etc. 

We spoke about the differences between comedies, tragedies and historical plays. I gave examples and had the children tell me what type of play they thought it was. 

After that we looked at the language of Shakespeare. I quizzed the kids on various words. I also had a list similar to this one and drew some words from there.

Next the students cut out the masks that I provided and then used the sheets with words to make Shakespeare sentences. 

They then stood up in front of the group with their masks and read their sentences. What was interesting was many of them came across sounding like insults. The kids laughed and had fun with it.

Next we did a read through of Romeo and Juliet in comic book form. It came from this resource through Teacher Express. They each read a page or two and we went through the whole play. Next session we will read through another, just for exposure.

The hour went by very quickly and it was time for my co-leader to lead the children through several scenes of Midsummer Nights Dream. It was such a beautiful day that the did the readings outside. Many of the children were challenged by the Old English language. This took more time to explain what was happening. The kids were great and helped each other though with their parts. Next week they will continue on with different scenes. How wonderful!

It is a joy to lead these kinds of group experiences! I love seeing the children learning together!! Maybe you would want to host a Shakespeare Learning Camp in your homeschool community... if you need any help just let me know. Blessings, Natalie