Students may think that Shakespearean plays have no relevance in today’s society, but they most certainly do! To assist learners with really understanding what each play is all about, we’ve compiled a list of 35 fantastic activities. Not only are they intended to add a little fun to each lesson, but they’re also focused on helping students revise and dissect themes, characters, and overall plots. Take a look at the activities below and spice up your next class by including one in your Shakespearean-focused lesson plans!
1. Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunting is just one of our awesome creative activities. It requests that the students use anything from the internet to encyclopedias and general knowledge to hunt for the answers to these Shakespeare-related questions.
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2. Crossword
Teachers can work this activity into just about any Shakespeare lesson plan. It’s an awesome way to test your student’s knowledge about sections just covered and cement the information to memory through recall.
Learn More: Word Mint
3. Word Search
If you’re looking for a simple game for younger school students, then look no further. You can either allow learners to take their time completing a word search or turn the task into a game by timing them to see who can discover all the words the quickest.
Learn More: Word Mint
5. Role Play
Bring William Shakespeare’s plays to life with this fun role-play activity. Delegate his famous lines to various members of the classroom to read aloud in a role-play style lesson.
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6. Phrase Checker
Work your way through an abundance of creative phrases in this cool activity. There are many phrases and sayings that are still commonly used today. This activity challenges learners to discover what its original meaning of it was.
Learn More: Teach Wire
7. True Or False
Perfect for a quick minute revision session at the end of each lesson! The teacher or class members are invited to say a sentence based on what they’ve just read. The remaining students should then state whether it’s true or false. If it is false, they should provide the correct facts.
Learn More: Teach Wire
8. Word Sleuth
Bringing old English words into the present day by discussing the modern equivalent is what the word sleuth is all about. Challenge your learners even further by seeing if they can find more than one synonym for the old English word.
Learn More: Teach Wire
9. Pop Culture Connection
This will help students make memorable connections and even further relate to the characters they are studying. Learners can analyze characters and liken them to someone similar in this day and age.
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10. Make An Infographics
Infographics are a visual learner’s delight! Although you can source a multitude of pre-existent graphics online, we’d encourage students to get creative and make their own.
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11. Who Am I
Use a generic line from the play you are learning about to play this game. 1 person says their chosen line and the remaining students must ask them yes-no questions in order to decipher who they are.
Learn More: English Book Georgia
12. Fill In The Blank Activity
Pair students together in order to complete this gap-fill activity. Use it as an activity to test learners’ general knowledge about Shakespeare or develop pay-specific activity sheets.
Learn More: English Book Georgia
13. Find Somebody Who
This brilliant game not only allows learners to socialize and have some fun in the classroom but also encourages them to revise what they have been taught. Examples of prompts could be to find somebody in the class who can name 3 Shakespeare plays or who can name 5 characters for example.
Learn More: English Book Georgia
14. Complete The Quote
Clever phrases are often forgotten once an entire play has been read through. This activity challenges learners to complete the quotes on the page and is, therefore, an excellent revision task.
Learn More: English Book Georgia
15. Shakespeare Board Game
This lively game gives students an in-depth look into the theatre world and teaches them more about the inner workings of William Shakespeare’s works of art. We’d recommend this board game for advanced students who are looking to incorporate some fun into their study sessions.
Learn More: The Game Gallery Channel
16. Play The Insult Game
Some Shakespearean insults are still used in today’s society. Others however have been quickly forgotten. Students should begin their insult with the word “Thou”, before choosing one word from each column to combine into a sentence. Have fun looking up the meaning of the insults with your classmates by translating them into modern English online.
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17. Create Your Own Board Game
Instead of purchasing a board game online, you could simply create your own! This game is a new take on the ever-so-popular game of Monopoly. It’ll have your students asking and answering questions – revising in a fun and memorable manner.
Learn More: Tes
18. Shakespearean Bingo
Bingo combined with Shakespeare? Who would have thought it could be so fun! We’d recommend playing this game by having the teacher ask questions and if you, as the student, have the right answer on your sheet you can cover it with a marker.
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19. Spot The Difference
This fun activity is best suited to younger learners. It’s an awesome activity to complete at the end of a character analysis lesson whereby an assortment of actors is discussed in detail.
Learn More: Shakespeare’s Globe
20. Anagrams
Anagrams are great for acing the spelling of various themes, characters, and areas that are found in Shakespearean plays. If teachers find themselves in a position where they have time remaining at the end of a class, this is a great improvisation game that can be used to keep students occupied.
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21. Create A Shakespearean Comic Book
Elementary students will benefit from the use of comic strips whilst dealing with more advanced content. Their developing minds are better able to retain written work when it is paired with captivating visuals. We’d recommended diving the class into groups and giving them each a different section of a play to transform into a comic book.
Learn More: Storyboard That
22. Listen To Shakespearean Audios
Audio versions of Shakespeare’s plays have become popular learning and revision tools for modern-day classes. Audios can be played whilst students follow along in their books- learning the proper pronunciation of old English words as they go.
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23. Watch A Play
Before a play is read through together as a class, teachers can show their students a movie-like re-enactment of it. This helps learners better interpret the plot, themes, and characters beforehand – leading to a more thorough understanding of the literary version.
Learn More: Globe Player
24. Pocket Plays
This idea is great if your kiddos are finding the Shakespeare plays a little challenging. These printable books are a super way for them to have all the information they need on hand and broken down in a simple, easy-to-understand way.
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25. Translate The Text
Parts of the old English language can be rather difficult to comprehend at times. Students can gain a deeper understanding of any Shakespearean play if they are able to transcribe it into modern-day English. And that’s exactly what this activity is about! Excerpts can be found below or pulled from any of the learner’s workbooks.
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26. Complete A Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehensions are included in a school’s syllabus to aid students in becoming more active readers. These activities can be changed to suit any class theme that’s of current focus, but this one is perfect for when students learn about Shakespeare.
Learn More: iSLCollective
27. Delve Deeper Into Shakespeare’s Life
Delve Deeper Into Shakespeare’s Life with this awesome finds the missing word worksheet. This is a great introductory activity before starting to read any of the famous plays written by the poet and playwright himself.
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28. Weird Words
This activity gets learners to explore the meaning behind some of the strange words that William Shakespeare made use of. Each word linked below relates to either Shakespeare’s life or one of his plays.
Learn More: Folger Shakespeare Library
29. Unscramble The Words
Unscramble activities are perfect for that extra bit of time at the end of a class period. Students can even take them home to work on as homework in order to further solidify the content of a lesson and ace their spelling as well!
Learn More: Folger Shakespeare Library
30. Review Summaries
Looking for a quick way, to sum up, a play? We’ve got just the solution! Linked below are 5-minute summaries of Shakespeare’s most popular plays. They can either be reviewed at the end of a lesson or given to students to help with exam preparation.
Learn More: No Sweat Shakespeare
31. Monologue Challenge
What better way to bind new information to memory? Have fun acting it out of course! Assign different character roles to students in the class and task them with acting out a scene from the Shakespearean play you are studying.
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32. Hot Seat Question & Answer
This activity requires students to sit on a chair whilst embodying a character from a play. The rest of the class asks questions and the person in the hot seat must answer them whilst remaining in the character of who they are re-enacting.
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33. Repeat The Soliloquy
One student is chosen to read a soliloquy in front of the class. Students should respond by saying “what” at the end of each line before the chosen student then repeats themselves. Eventually, they should be able to repeat the soliloquy, or at least a portion of it, without reading or looking at it.
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34. Shakespeare Is
This activity can be used towards the end of a play and helps prompt revision. The teacher calls out “Shakespeare is” and invites the students to respond with adjectives or nouns. This helps to develop students’ views of the famous poet. The activity can also be used to build a description for other characters in his plays.
Learn More: Digital Theatre+
35. Sonnet Exploring
Whilst studying a host of sonnets, readers will quickly come to learn that they contain rhyme. This activity invites learners to explore a few Shakespearean sonnets and note down the rhyme scheme of each.
Learn More: The Daring English Teacher
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