Teaching Ideas for a Shakespeare Day

If your children are learning about Shakespeare or you are planning a special ‘Shakespeare Day’ to celebrate his birthday (23rd April), try some of the teaching ideas and activities below.

English:

• Download our Shakespeare Pack for lots of resources and a guide all about his life.

• Enjoy watching the BBC animated version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
• Try learning and performing some short extracts from a play. This page has a list of possible extracts to use.
• Write a short story based on part of a play. Listen to one of these retellings of Shakespeare plays from the BBC for inspiration. Mr William Shakespeare’ Plays by Marcia Williams is a great book to use for this.
• Turn part of a play into a comic strip.
• Using this list of words, look up some of the words he invented or was the first to use in a dictionary.
• Write a letter to a character from one of Shakespeare’s plays.
• Write a page from Shakespeare’s diary.
• Use our Shakespeare Fact Cards and display resources.
• Visit The Primary Shakespeare Company for teaching resources for The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Twelfth Night and Julius Caesar.
• Try a quiz about one of his plays: how much do you know about As You Like It, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet or The Tempest?

Maths:

• Calculate the distance between locations in Shakespeare’s plays, for example, from Verona to Venice.
• Write a budget for a production of a Shakespeare play, including costs for costumes, sets, etc.

Science:

• Study some of the plants mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays and their uses. This page from Kew Gardens is a useful resource.
• Shakespeare often mentioned the moon and stars in his works. Create a fact file about the moon or a constellation.

Computing:

• Create a digital storybook of a Shakespearean tale.
• Program a simple animation or game based on a Shakespeare play.
• Take a virtual tour around the Globe Theatre.
• Use a digital art package to create an image from one of his plays.
• Use PowerPoint or a similar program to create a Shakespeare Quiz.

Design Technology:

• Design and a costume for a Shakespearean play character.
• Create props for a scene in a Shakespeare play.
• Design a poster advertising a Shakespeare play.
• Construct a pop-up scene from one of Shakespeare’s plays.
• Make masks representing different characters or emotions from his works.
• Build a set model for a scene from a Shakespeare play using recycled materials.
• Make an Elizabethan ruff collar.

Art:

• Paint or sketch a scene from one of Shakespeare’s plays.
• Look at and discuss some famous artworks based on Shakespeare’s work.
• Make a portrait in the style of this famous image.
• Make a mixed-media portrait of Shakespeare.
• Use leaf printing to create a forest scene inspired by “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
• Try one of these ideas from Elm Shakespeare Company.

Music:

• Rehearse and perform a Shakespeare Musical. Everything you need can be found here.
• Use percussion instruments to compose and perform a piece that could fit in a Shakespeare play.
• Clap the rhythms of lines from Shakespeare’s sonnets or plays.
• Create sound effects for a play.
• Listen to some music from that time. What do you notice about it? What instruments are used?

Geography:

• Explore some locations associated with Shakespeare in London and Stratford-upon-Avon. Find them on Google Street View. What are they like now?
• Explore this interactive map of London at the time Shakespeare was alive.

History:

• Create a timeline of events in Shakespeare’s life.
• Write a report about a significant place in Shakespeare’s life, such as the Globe Theatre.
• Visit the CBBC Shakespeare page to learn about his life.
• Explore the lives of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I.
• Look at this map from 1574. What do you notice? Compare it to a modern map of that area of London. What has changed, what is the same?
• Read this page about Shakespeare’s education. What is the same and what is different about your education?
• Listen to this Horrible Histories song about Shakespeare.

Physical Education:

• Learn some moves for a Midsummer Dance Party.

• Organise a “Shakespearean Olympics” with sports and games from the Elizabethan era. This page has some information that might inspire you.
• Create a dance based on a scene from a Shakespeare play.

Languages:

• Learn the words for vocabulary such as play and stage in the language you are studying.

PSHE:

• Use a story from Shakespeare as a discussion starter. For example, use the story of Julius Caesar to talk about loyalty.