Starting with Shakespeare: Successfully Introducing Shakespeare to Children

by Todd Daubert, Todd Daubert, Jason Shwartz

William Shakespeare comes alive for students with these engaging activities. Immersing students in his life and times and characters, this book introduces elementary students to four plays: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet. A complete historical background, an introduction to the characters, a retelling of the story, a variety of integrated activities, verses for memorization, a complete script for class performance, and a list of resources accompany each play. Activities extend learning to history, geography, science, art, music, movement, math, and language arts. Grades K-5 (adaptable to higher levels).

236 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2000

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book up randomly from the library as my kids will get their first taste of Shakepeare this year. While I agree with the author's assertion that "students need to be rescued from DDT-Dumbing Down Trend" this book seems to be too dumbed down.

I think sprinkling in a few quotes actually written by Shakepeare with quality writing such as, "Hey! Do you remember that cute chick Ophelia?....and the big dumb jock of a brother...." is simplifying Shakepeare too much in an attempt to make the old language more accessible to today's student. I'm going to keep looking for another source.