from Shakespeare's Storybook
Colleen and I have put our heads together to come up with a family friendly Shakespeare Study for this year. We are eagerly anticipating dedicating our Friday Afternoons to the bard. You'll see how it's scheduled in Colleen's planning document in the Continent Study post. I'm uploading it again here for your convenience. We'll study one lesson block a month, for a full academic year of literature study.Download Calendar_2009-05-10_2009-05-17(2)
ETA: **Laughing out Loud at Our Discovery Today! When Colleen sent me her schedule to create a PDF, Google kindly translated her time zone into my time zone, so now it looks like the Mitchells are slackers who don't start their days until 10:00:-). Just slide the time blocks up--or not, depending on when you want to get going...
(Sorry about the funky highlighting. This post spent too long in Google Docs and endured much tinkering. So, it rebelled when we transplanted it and utterly confounded us with all kinds of complex code:-)
We'll cover the following topics:
General Biography of Shakespeare
Globe Theatre
Stories that Inspired the Bard
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Romeo and Juliet
A Winter's Tale
Hamlet
Macbeth
Twelfth Night
The Tempest
Core Books:
Tales from Shakespeare
by: Marcia Williams
Includes versions of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, The Winter's Tale, Julius Caesar, Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Tempest, The stories are portrayed on a stage, with cartoon panels carrying the actions and direct quotations from the play. The author's narration appears below the panels.
More Tales from Shakespeare
by: Marcia Williams
Includes versions of As You Like It, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, Antony and Cleopatra, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice and Richard III.
Lamb's version online for free audio:
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare (Nesbit)
Tales from Shakespeare (Lamb)
Brush up Your Shakespeare! (indexed in the back)
Shakespeare for Kids
Poetry for Young People
High School: Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories, Tragedies
General Bio:
Read Bard of Avon
Read DK books--Shakespeare
Read biographical information in Poetry for Young People
Shakespeare for Kids: pgs 3-7;43-47;55-66;107-112;131-134
Copywork:
| Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? |
| Thou art more lovely and more temperate: |
| Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, |
| And summer's lease hath all too short a date: |
| Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, |
| And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; |
| And every fair from fair sometime declines, |
| By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; |
| But thy eternal summer shall not fade |
| Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; |
| Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, |
| When in eternal lines to time thou growest: |
| So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, |
| So long lives this and this gives life to thee. |
Main Lesson Book page: Who was Shakespeare?(Written Narration and illustration--do one page each week this month)
1. Draw a portrait of Shakespeare
2. Draw a map of England, label London for reference, the Thames River, and Avon.
3. Draw a scene from Shakespeare's life and narrate it.
4. Write an acrostic poem about Shakespeare using the letters in his name. Decorate the page.
To Make or Do:
Make a wee felt Shakespeare.
Use only things you can find around the house to dress a sibling as Shakespeare or one of the ladies who would have attended his plays. Take a photo for you main lesson book.
High School
Watch Teaching Company DVD Lectures 1 and 2
Globe Theatre:
Read William Shakespeare and the Globe
Read Shakespeare's Globe (pop-up book)
Read Shakespeare's Theatre
Shakespeare for Kids: choose an activity that appeals to your family.
Copywork:
Sonnet 20
A woman's face with Nature’s own hand painted
Hast though, the master/mistress of my passion;
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change,as is false women’s fashion;
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue, all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created,
Till Nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated,
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love, and thy love’s use their treasure.
Main Lesson Book Page: Diagram of the Globe Theatre with written explanation (a page a week for the month).
1. Draw the globe from the actor's perspective (stage out) and label.
2. Draw the globe from the audience's perspective (looking at stage) and label.
3. Illustrate actors in a Shakespearean play, considering common costumes, wigs, props, etc...
4. Create a list of items that would have been common props or scenery at the Globe, illustrate these items in the border of your actor's page and label them.
To Make or Do: Make a diorama of the Globe to use with wee felt folk to be made for each play studied.
Stories that inspired Shakespeare:
Read Shakespeare's Storybook (Barefoot Books/cd available)
Read Will's Quill
Copywork:
SONNET 15
When I consider every thing that grows
Holds in perfection but a little moment,
That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows
Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;
When I perceive that men as plants increase,
Cheered and cheque'd even by the self-same sky,
Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,
And wear their brave state out of memory;
Then the conceit of this inconstant stay
Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,
Where wasteful Time debateth with Decay,
To change your day of youth to sullied night;
And all in war with Time for love of you,
As he takes from you, I engraft you new.
Shakespeare for Kids:choose an activity that appeals to your family.
Main Lesson Book Page:
1. Choose one story a week from Shakespeare's Storybook. Look at the full-sized illustration. Create your own illustration in this style. Be sure to include a beautiful border.
2.Narrate Will's Quill and illustrate in the same style as the Storybook illustrations
To Make or Do:
Make beeswax figures to dramatize one of the stories.
Midsummer Night's Dream
Read the Nesbit or the Lamb's version
Read the Marcia Williams version and study the illustrations
Read Bruce Coville version A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare for Kids: choose an activity that appeals to your family.
Copywork: Brush Up Your Shakespeare: Choose quotes from the play which are appropriate for you family and copy, illustrate and memorize them.
Main Lesson Book:
1. Write about the setting with the place and time of the play.
2. Write about and illustrate the main characters--draw them, list their traits--older kids can include quotes for evidence of trait.
3. Write and draw about the plot--diagram major events of rising action, climax, falling action,
4. Write about themes--articulate main themes of play in own words and decorate page.
Bonus: Write a comic strip version of the play.
To Make or Do: Craft a wee felt scene and use figures to act the play.
High School (to be done in addition to assignments above)
Read the entire play.
Watch the film version.
Romeo and Juliet
Read the Nesbit or the Lamb's version
Read the Marcia Williams version and study the illustrations
Read Bruce Coville version Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare for Kids: choose an activity that appeals to your family.
Copywork: Brush Up Your Shakespeare: Choose quotes from the play which are appropriate for you family and copy, illustrate and memorize them.
Main Lesson Book:
1. Write about the setting with the place and time of the play.
2. Write about and illustrate the main characters--draw them, list their traits--older kids can include quotes for evidence of trait.
3. Write and draw about the plot--diagram major events of rising action, climax, falling action,
4. Write about themes--articulate main themes of play in own words and decorate page.
Bonus: Write a comic strip version of the play.
To Make or Do: Craft a wee felt scene and use figures to act the play.
High School (to be done in addition to assignments above)
Read the entire play.
Watch the film version.
Teaching Company DVD Lectures 19 & 20
A Winter's Tale
Read the Nesbit or the Lamb's version
Read the Marcia Williams version and study the illustrations
Read Bruce Coville version A Winter's Tale
Shakespeare for Kids: choose an activity that appeals to your family.
Copywork: Brush Up Your Shakespeare:Choose quotes from the play which are appropriate for you family and copy, illustrate and memorize them.
Main Lesson Book:
1. Write about the setting with the place and time of the play.
2. Write about and illustrate the main characters--draw them, list their traits--older kids can include quotes for evidence of trait.
3. Write and draw about the plot--diagram major events of rising action, climax, falling action,
4. Write about themes--articulate main themes of play in own words and decorate page.
Bonus: Write a comic strip version of the play.
High School (to be done in addition to assignments above)
Read the entire play.
Watch the film version.
Hamlet
Read the Nesbit or the Lamb's version
Read the Marcia Williams version and study the illustrations
Read Bruce Coville version Hamlet
Shakespeare for Kids: choose an activity that appeals to your family.
Copywork: Brush Up Your Shakespeare: Choose quotes from the play which are appropriate for you family and copy, illustrate and memorize them.
Main Lesson Book:
1. Write about the setting with the place and time of the play.
2. Write about and illustrate the main characters--draw them, list their traits--older kids can include quotes for evidence of trait.
3. Write and draw about the plot--diagram major events of rising action, climax, falling action,
4. Write about themes--articulate main themes of play in own words and decorate page.
Bonus: Write a comic strip version of the play.
High School (to be done in addition to assignments above)
Read the entire play.
Watch the film version.
Teaching Company DVD Lectures 25, 26 & 27
Macbeth
Read the Nesbit or the Lamb's version
Read the Marcia Williams version and study the illustrations
Read Bruce Coville version MacBeth
Shakespeare for Kids: choose an activity that appeals to your family.
Copywork: Brush Up Your Shakespeare: Choose quotes from the play which are appropriate for you family and copy, illustrate and memorize them.
Main Lesson Book:
1. Write about the setting with the place and time of the play.
2. Write about and illustrate the main characters--draw them, list their traits--older kids can include quotes for evidence of trait.
3. Write and draw about the plot--diagram major events of rising action, climax, falling action,
4. Write about themes--articulate main themes of play in own words and decorate page.
Bonus: Write a comic strip version of the play.
High School (to be done in addition to assignments above)
Read the entire play.
Watch the film version.
Teaching Company DVD Lectures 34, 35, & 36
Twelfth Night
Read the Nesbit or the Lamb's version
Read the Marcia Williams version and study the illustrations
Read Bruce Coville version of Twelfth Night
Copywork: Brush Up Your Shakespeare: Choose quotes from the play which are appropriate for you family and copy, illustrate and memorize them.
Main Lesson Book:
1. Write about the setting with the place and time of the play.
2. Write about and illustrate the main characters--draw them, list their traits--older kids can include quotes for evidence of trait.
3. Write and draw about the plot--diagram major events of rising action, climax, falling action,
4. Write about themes--articulate main themes of play in own words and decorate page.
Bonus: Write a comic strip version of the play.
High School (to be done in addition to assignments above)
Teaching Company DVD Lectures 3 &4
Read the entire play.
Watch the film version.
The Tempest
Read the Nesbit or the Lamb's version
Read the Marcia Williams version and study the illustrations
Read Bruce Coville version The Tempest
Shakespeare for Kids: choose an activity that appeals to your family.
Copywork: Brush Up Your Shakespeare: Choose quotes from the play which are appropriate for you family and copy, illustrate and memorize them.
Main Lesson Book:
1. Write about the setting with the place and time of the play.
2. Write about and illustrate the main characters--draw them, list their traits--older kids can include quotes for evidence of trait.
3. Write and draw about the plot--diagram major events of rising action, climax, falling action,
4. Write about themes--articulate main themes of play in own words and decorate page.
Bonus: Write a comic strip version of the play.
High School (to be done in addition to assignments above)
Read the entire play.
Watch the film version.
Notebooking pages and other resources
