Project 77: Shakespeare!

As it was Shakespeare Week, and there were a host of resources available online, we decided to make it the topic of this week's project, looking at three of his plays (a comedy, a tragedy, and a history play): The Tempest; Romeo and Juliet; and Richard III.

For The Tempest we watched CBeebies Presents: The Tempest, Shakespeare Animated Tales: The Tempest, and sung along with the BBC School Radio - KS2 Music: The Tempest. It was good for the children to see how the same story can be portrayed in different ways, while the musical version kept them singing throughout the week.

For Romeo and Juliet we watched Shakespeare Animated Tales: Romeo and Juliet, and watched West Side Story to see how the story continues to be reinterpreted. 

Finally, for Richard III we just watched Shakespeare Animated Tales: Richard III, a video they had previously watched for Project 69: The Tudors.

We also made use of the brilliant Shakespeare Week web site, a great resource with loads of activities. The children did quizzes, made 'fortune tellers', learned about the changing language, and got ideas for craft activities. The only bad thing about the free site is you have to sign up to access the resources (hence we haven't linked to specific pages here!). Despite this terrible web design decision, it's worth signing up.

Elizabethan Portraits

Unsurprisingly, there's a phenomenal amount of Shakespeare resources available online, and we're already looking forward to introducing a few more plays next year!

Next week: America!