Shakespeare Camp



 Hayzel and friend

This week is Shakespeare Camp!  I have been hosting and organizing Summer Camps for five years now.  Since basically my kids were so young they could not truly appreciate it.  But that is alright because I love doing it and learn how to throw a camp together a little better each year. 
 
In the past we have done different themes: Native Americans, Little House on the Prairie, Around the World, Science Experiments and this year Shakespeare.  The camp lasts four days and on the fifth day this year we will attend a local university to watch a kids version of Mid Summer Nights Dream.  I will tell you the day by day version of our camp in individual posts.  Today we will go over Monday.
 


Creating our Medival Poems

Monday:
 
Review Our Lines in Song Form.  We are memorizing some lines from Mid Summer Nights Dream.  I set it to song (Skip to my Lou) and hand motions.
 
"I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,"
 
These are the lines we learned Monday and the kids did great and caught on really fast!
 
I dressed up as a town crier-nope no pictures thank goodness.  I took out a rolled up paper and presented with a "Hear Ye Hear Ye!!" and read a silly and not super great poem I wrote about Shakespeare:
 
"There once was a boy named Will,
To Black Death he did not take ill,
 
It was 1564 when baby Will was born,
In Stratford England he grew up the norm,
 
His Daddy John created purses, belts, gloves,
His Mommy Mary was as gentle as the doves,
 
And Elizabeth the 1st was the Queen and not the worst,
For Good Queen Bess was well more liked than the rest
 
When William grew to an adult he married,
To a lady named Anne Hathaway he tarried,
 
They had Susanna and the twins,
All these kids made his kin,
 
Their family was complete
And it was pretty sweet
 
So he set off for the city of London to write and act,
He began writing great plays and that's a fact,
 
Soon he was well known through out the land,
And even good Queen Bess thought he was grand,
 
And so now I end this rhyme,
 which I feel is so sublime,

But do not think of taking a rest,
Because at the end there will be a test"


(Information from the "Who was William Shakespeare? "  Book By Celeste Davidson Mannis-The biographies with the pictures of big heads)



Brinley and friend

After this I played a True False game with them.  I mentioned many true and falsified facts about Shakespeare and they stood up when it was true and sat down when it was false.  That took about ten minutes and they did well.

Craft Time: consisted of making our poems on tea dyed paper with feathers and paint.  We also did face painting for those who wanted Shakespeare mustaches and goutees. 

We played hopscotch and tag for a nice break-plus Shakespeare would have played these games during Elizabethan times. 

Snack Time was Cookies and musroom shaped apples and cheese.  Tuesday we Read the Story "A Mid Summer Nights Dream"



Mushroom Snack

             We ended with Reviewing the Shakespeare lines.  It was easy and enjoyable!