March 12, 2024
Shakespeare Week is an annual national celebration giving primary school aged children a chance to have a great first encounter with Shakespeare and his characters, stories and language. Coordinated by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, teachers can register for access to hundreds of resources developed by a range of partners for Key Stage 1 and 2.
There are a range of resources within Purple Mash that lend themselves well to supporting any introduction to Shakespeare.
For a start, you could use 2Paint A Picture to allow children to easily create their own portrait of the bard, either from scratch or by importing an image and manipulating it. Comparing finished portraits can be a lot of fun. Remember the witches’ cauldron from Macbeth? Why not bring some colour to it with this Paint Project. There are lots of interesting textures for younger learners to experiment with. And no Purple Mash resources suggestion would be complete without a Mashcam would it?! Literally picture yourself as Shakespeare and remember to show your thoughts with the speech bubble.
More advanced learners are bound to enjoy attempting to interpret insults from some of Shakespeare’s great plays. Once you’ve learnt a little about him, you could put your knowledge to the test with this Shakespeare quiz. Or if you’ve been focusing on a specific play, why not animate your very own version of it? This template includes the beginning of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. You could either try to finish this version or adapt it to whichever play you choose.
Also inside Purple Mash are a whole range of writing templates, some of which are perfect for using during Shakespeare week. Remember that any of them can be edited and printed for use offline! You might want to try the play script template or poem template.
Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564 and died in 1616. Although his plays were written 400 years ago they are full of characters, dilemmas and stories we all still recognise. The Shakespeare Learning Zone from the Royal Shakespeare Company gives you loads of information about Shakespeare’s plays. You’ll find key facts, key scenes and pictures from past productions, videos of actors and directors working on and performing the plays, and find out about all the main characters and how they relate to each other.
BBC Teach have also put together a fantastic collection of Shakespeare resources for Primary and Secondary pupils to use during the week. From Shakespeare in shorts – short animated films retelling six classic Shakespeare plays set to modern music - to information about who William Shakespeare was and visiting the Globe, this collection is great for informing and inspiring pupils.
Whatever you do to celebrate Shakespeare Week, we’d love to see what you get up to. Share your efforts with us on our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages.
Shakespeare Week resources by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and their partners. Registration is required, but free: https://www.shakespeareweek.org.uk/resources/
BBC Teach Shakespeare resources
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