I have more ideas than I have opportunities to try them out, so if you ever see something here you want to try with your own kids, you go right ahead. Then report back how it went.

Tomorrow I have to entertain a bunch of 7yr olds on the subject of Shakespeare.  I’ve already got plenty of ideas (see my “scenes from a hat” post earlier today).  But here’s another one:

Shakespeare Survivor

1) Pick a tragedy. We’ll assume Hamlet.

2) Every student is given a name tag identifying them as a character from the play.

3) Everybody stands up.

4) Teacher walks through the play, “character introduction by character introduction,” so the students know who they are supposed to be.  Example:  One student has the nametag “King Hamlet.”  Teacher responds, “You are the previous king of Denmark.  When the play starts, you’re already dead.  Sit down.”

5) As each character dies, they are told the method of their demise (“You’re hiding behind the curtains and Hamlet stabs you.”)  It’s important to go back and inform the ghost of old king Hamlet how he died, so he doesn’t feel ripped off that he died so early :).

6) Any student left standing has survived!

I figure it wins on two levels.  Most of the kids get to die, and it’s always cool to die a gruesome death when you’re seven.  Those that don’t get a gruesome death at least get to come away with the “victory” that they survived the play.

If I have time I’m going to write up those cards and bring them with me.  Not sure yet if we’ll try to play that or the scenes from a hat game.  Problem with this game is that there’s like 22 students in the class and I don’t have a play that has that many characters, so I’d have to do it twice (Hamlet and Macbeth?) and then it starts to get too long and kids argue about who went twice and blah blah blah.

P.S. – Did I write up this game once?  I’m getting a weird dejavu over it, but I can’t find evidence that I wrote it up previously.  I could swear we talked about ….. I know what it was!  Shakespeare Death Bingo!  Ok, now I feel better that I’m not repeating myself.  Similar concept, different execution.

I was introduced this morning to a new Shakespeare Day Project call 450 Minute Shakespeare. Here’s the gimmick:  it’s Shakespeare’s 450th birthday.  It also works out quite nicely that 450minutes is about a full “work day” worth of time (7 1/2 hours).  So this group is looking for people to fill up 450 minutes worth of Shakespeare performance, one minute or more at a time, so that they can present it throughout the day on April 23.

This is a fundraising event setup by a group in Taunton, Somerset who are trying to reopen their local theatre and show that Stratford’s not the only place in England that appreciates their Shakespeare.  You contribute by “buying” your minute (or minutes), then you’re welcome to record whatever performance you choose (many examples on their site ranging from “perform a sonnet” to “bake Shakespeare-shaped cookies and give them to your neighbor”).  I love that they encourage variety.  Seven hours of people reciting Sonnet 18 and the opening to Richard III would get a little tiresome. Groups of all sizes are more than welcome, and they seem quite flexible in determining how much they expect you to pay to take part. It’s quite obvious that they’re doing it to raise money, not make a profit. There’s a big difference.
 
More details at the link.  The site is not fully functional yet but the FAQs are pretty detailed.

What will you do with your Shakespeare minute?

There’s a scene in Dead Poet’s Society (cover your ears bardfilm) where Robin Williams gives each student a card with a snippet of poetry on it while they’re standing in a line outside.  They’re supposed to shout the line, then kick a soccer ball.

Later this week I’m going to do some Shakespeare with seven year olds, and I was thinking about doing some material with them.  But since I won’t have nearly the time to explain significant scenes, I thought I could do more “lines from a hat” where any student who’s willing would draw a famous quote and have to stand up and deliver it to the class.

As such, I need variety.  I’m looking for lines that are short and simple enough that a 7yr old could read it, but have also got a little something behind them so they’ll sound cool when projected across the room.  You know, the kind of stuff that gives us all spine tingles when we hear it.

If I get enough material I’ll bring along the longer version of each quote (for context) and depending on how much they get into it we can do longer passages. So I’m focusing at first on something short and punchy that even the most shy student could still recite.

So far on my list I’ve got:

“O for a muse of fire that would ascend the greatest heaven of invention!”

“Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene.”

“When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning or in rain?”

“If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended, that you have but slumbered here.”

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.”

“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!”

“Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio.”

I’m avoiding the easy “To be or not to be” both because it’s too cliche, but also because they won’t have the capacity to understand the deeper meaning behind it.

What else have you got for me?  We may not even get to do this project, but I feel like I missed an opportunity recently with my fourth graders and I want to have some sort of performance/recitation project in my back pocket (literally!) in case I can swing the crowd that way.