Shakespeare Resources and Lesson Ideas

When my daughter chose Shakespeare as her birthday party theme, I was thrilled. I thought there would be lots of ideas and plans available. Since her birthday party was to be postponed until after the holiday season, I decided to wait until after Christmas to start planning. After all, I assumed there was a plethora of information and ideas available. There was no hurry, right?

Alas, I was wrong, quite wrong. Apparently, not many young girls have a Shakespeare themed birthday party. I had to start from square one with only a few weeks to plan her party.

However, the internet is bursting with information about Shakespeare, his works, and the time period in which he lived. I researched it all. What follows are websites and resources which I thought would be great resources for anyone planning a lesson on Shakespeare.


Online Resources

Complete Works of Shakespeare found here

Language {articles and helps}

• an article on Elizabethan language
• Speak Like Shakespeare
• Talk Like Shakespeare

Quotes

• Shakespeare Quotes

Food {articles and recipes}

• food from the 1500's
• English food from the 1600's
• Renaissance foods
• Renaissance cooking and recipes
• cook book from 1591 called A Book of Cookrye

Clothing

• video on how to make clothing {warning, it is funny}
• article on how to make clothing of the time period
• sewing hats
• alternative directions on sewing hats
• suggested supplies and fabrics for hats
• place to purchase hats
• how to make a jester hat from craft foam
• how to make a jester hat from construction paper

Games of Shakespeare's time found here

Articles and Activities for Kids

• from Cricket: free articles about Shakespeare 
• from free-for-kids: Shakespeare word games
• from Activity Village: coloring pages
• from Crayola: coloring page
• free printable Globe Theatre paper model

Teacher Resources

• Activity Village has free printables for notebooking
• life and times of Shakespeare with free power point presentations {You will have to poke around this site as some of it needs updated links}
• short written biography found here
• A Day with William Shakespeare can be accessed here
• brief video biography found here
• a link to Shakespeare's Globe online resource listing, lots to peruse for the serious student

Books and Videos {we found most at our local library}

Biographies and Nonfiction Resources

• Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare, by Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema
• Who Was William Shakespeare, by Celeste Mannis
• William Shakespeare and the Globe, by Aliki
• Shakespeare and Macbeth: The Story Behind the Play, by Stewart Ross
• Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook, by Francine Segan
• Shakespeare for Kids: His Life and Times, by Colleen Aagesen

Works

• The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works, General Editors Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor
• Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children, edited by Edith Nesbit
• Tales from Shakespeare, retold by Charles and Mary Lamb
• audio retelling Shakespeare for Children, by Jim Weiss

Picture Books of Plays

• The Tempest, retold by Ann Keay Beneduce
• William Shakespeare's Macbeth, retold by Bruce Coville
• William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, retold by Bruce Coville
• William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, retold by Bruce Coville
• William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, retold by Bruce Coville
• William Shakespeare's Hamlet, retold by Bruce Coville
• William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, retold by Bruce Coville

Videos of Plays

• BBC & Time Life Films: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - {We borrowed Twelfth Night}

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