I've gathered all the Renaissance work into one place to make it (hopefully) easier to find. We very much studied this era by studying the people who lived in it and experienced it first hand. Leonardo Da Vinci, Fibonacci, Michelangelo and Gutenberg - we studied them all and learnt heaps about the renaissance at the…
Category: History – Renaissance
Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet Act III
For Day 1 see here For Day 2 see here We did things back to front today as Lorna was at the fracture clinic in the morning, AND I had the two littles. I decided to do project time in the morning with a complete run through of their version of Midsummer. If nothing…
Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet Act II
For Day 1 see here Romeo and Juliet Act II, Scenes I-VI Watch a Stage Production of Act II, Scenes I-VI (40 mins) We watched Act II from the Shakespeare's Globe production of Romeo and Juliet: Readers' Theater (30 mins) As another means of drilling the story deep into the children we carried out a…
Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet – Act I
Our first Shakespeare Club week was a huge success, so we were all looking forward to this week, assuming it would be equally fab. Unfortunately it really wasn't. I think this was due to many different reasons: All five children and their mothers (ie me and Lorna) were exhausted from the week before. Honestly, I…
Shakespeare: Midsummer Night’s Dream – Day 5
Midsummer Night's Dream Day 1 Midsummer Night's Dream Day 2 Midsummer Night's Dream Day 3 Midsummer Night's Dream Day 4 Shakespeare Biographical Work (10 mins) Read out-loud Act I, scene 5: Hyperbole, Oxymoron and Made Up Words from the following Shakespeare book: Midsummer Night's Dream Act IV, Scene I-II (80 mins) We listened to the following BBC3 production…
Shakespeare: Midsummer Night’s Dream – Day 4
Midsummer Night's Dream Day 1 Midsummer Night's Dream Day 2 Midsummer Night's Dream Day 3 Shakespeare Biographical Work (10 mins) Read out-loud Act I, scene 4: Shakespeare Attends School from the following Shakespeare book: Midsummer Night's Dream Act IV, Scene I-II (50 mins) Read and Listen to Act IV (about 25 mins) We listened to the…
Shakespeare: Midsummer Night’s Dream – Day 3
Midsummer Night's Dream Day 1 Midsummer Night's Dream Day 2 Shakespeare Biographical Work (10 mins) Read out-loud Act I, scene 3: John Shakespeare Takes his Son to His First Play from the following Shakespeare book: Midsummer Night's Dream Act III, Scene I-III (80 mins) Yesterday we had forgone the audio and just watched the video,…
Shakespeare: Midsummer Night’s Dream – Day 2
For Day 1 see here Shakespeare Biographical Work (10 mins) Read out-loud Act 1, scene 2: John Shakespeare supports his Growing Family from the following Shakespeare book: Language study Iambic pentameter (20 mins) Iambic pentameter is something I remember struggling to get my head round as a teen yet as an adult it seems so…
Shakespeare: Midsummer Night’s Dream – Day 1
Pre study The children read Midsummer Night's Dream from the following books to familiarise themselves with the story: I also bought this beautiful book. The pictures are mesmerising and the story well told. It was really important that the children completely understood the story of this play because their project would be based on Midsummer…
A Summer Shakespeare Club: Adventure Box
We've been making summer adventure boxes for years. They are so useful for building anticipation as the children gleefully watch them fill up with goodies over the preceding weeks. We already had most of the book resources (I often buy resources a year or two in advance) and we always keep a well stocked dressing…
A Summer Shakespeare Club: Introduction
I am always surprised when I hear young people saying they think Shakespeare is boring. To me he was one of the wittiest people to walk this earth. It is this sense of fun and his intelligent repartee which I hope to share with the children this summer. We have all been impatiently waiting for…
Elizabethan Unit Study
Just collating all my Elizabethan Posts into one big post! Week One: A Renaissance Queen Week Two: Reformation and Coronation Week Three: Elizabethan Progresses and Elizabethan Games Week Four: Drake and the Spanish Armada Week Five: Spies and Spy craft Project Based Learning: Pirates Enjoy!
Elizabethan Unit Study: Week 5: Spies and spycraft
This was our last week on the Elizabethan Times. The children still have one further week to finish up the Pirate's of the Golden Age projects and we will be doing a five week unit on Shakespeare over the summer. Biography This week we finished Elizabeth I: The People’s Queen: We learnt about Elizabeth's later years…
Elizabethan Unit study: Week Four: Drake and the Spanish Armada
Biography This week we continued to read the next couple of chapters from our main core book: We learnt about the political and religious back drop to the Spanish declaring war on the British, and the resultant failure of the attack by the Spanish Armada. The Reformation I’ve shared these books before but for cohesion…
Elizabethan Unit Study: Week Three
Biography We continued to read the next two chapters of Elizabeth I: The People’s Queen. We learnt a lot about Mary, queen of Scots and were introduced to the necessity of spy craft to keep abreast of any threats to the throne. We also read about the queen's progresses or road trips and how the queen…