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Throughout his work, Shakespeare mentions numerous plants and flowers–about 175. These mentions have inspired numerous gardeners to plant “Shakespeare Gardens,” in which they plant as many of the flowers mentioned as possible. The best thing about these Shakespeare Gardens is that they pop up where you least expect them. We…

Happily, many lessons plans and creative ideas for teaching Shakespeare already exist and are available online. Often when the Royal Shakespeare Company or Shakespeare’s Globe perform a play, they also release teaching packets about that play. Here are some of the best sites to go to when you are looking…

The Whoosh became one of our favorite activities in Shakespeare Club. It is a fantastic tool for introducing the plot of Shakespeare play as well as loosening up the actors and really getting those dramatic muscles moving. The Whoosh is an activity developed by Dr. Joe Winston of Warwick University.…

In the summer of 2020, we were slowly coming out of COVID lockdown. Our interactions with those outside our family were still limited and mostly outdoors. In an effort to have our daughters see their friends, we decided to host a Midsummer cookout with a family that also had three…

There is no record of Shakespeare’s actual birth, but his baptism is recorded. Based on the date of his baptism and traditions at the time, scholars decided that his birthday was April 23. Interestingly, he died on April 23 fifty-two years later. Shakespeare’s birthday has long been a time of…

Valentine’s Day is an excellent day to read some of Shakespeare’s most romantic sonnets. Since watching Emma Thompson’s Sense and Sensibility adaption in the mid-90’s, my favorite romantic sonnet has been No. 116. Other sonnets to include would be Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 98. This is also a great time…

Admittedly, Burns Night doesn’t obviously have anything to do with Shakespeare. Burns Night–or a Burns Supper–celebrates the birthday of Scottish poet Robert Burns. But it is a really fun way to celebrate poetry of all kinds. Haggis is the key part of the Burns Supper. It is presented and cut…

Twelfth Night is the twelfth day of Christmas, aka January 5. It is the day before Epiphany. A fantastic way to bring Shakespeare into your Christmas celebrations is to have a Twelfth Night party. When our children were younger, our family had a tradition of making an absolutely ridiculous Twelfth…

October 25 is St. Crispin’s Day and every lover of Shakespeare should either read the St. Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V or watch a performance of it. If you have a Shakespeare Club or a class, by all means do both. I recommend watching one or two fantastic performances…

Halloween decorations in our town are over the top. Families have inflatables, anamatronics, and orange lights everywhere. So while hosting our Shakespeare Club, we decided to create Shakespeare-inspired Halloween decorations. We started with the witches from Macbeth. We found styrofoam heads at our local craft store and placed them securely…