Thomas Jolyffe Primary School
Thomas Jolyffe Primary School
English
Welcome to the week’s work. As we live in Stratford upon Avon, we feel it is important that we study a bit of Shakespeare. So, over the next 2 weeks you are going to enjoy learning about a play called ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
Each day you will watch a part of the play and then you will have an activity (or activities) to complete. You can do 1 or 2 activities; it is up to you! I hope you enjoy it; it is such a fun play!
Monday 22nd February
Activity 1: Watch the clip and complete the sheet by copying it in your book.
Prediction: What kind of story is this going to be? What type of characters
will we meet? What might happen next?
Link making: Does it remind you of anything else you have seen or
read?
Clarification: Is there any part of it that you didn’t understand? Was any
of the vocabulary confusing?
Questioning: What will the themes of the story be? (Love, magic…
Activity 2:
Getting to know the characters in the play. Looking at the activity sheet, match their names to their illustrations so you know everyone (you don’t need to print the sheet, you can do this in your head). Then then arrange the characters into pairs / groups according to their different relationships - eg:
- which characters live at court / which characters live in the town / the wood?
- who is in love with who?
- who wants Lysander and Hermia to be together?
- who wants Demetrius and Hermia to be together?
You can write the pairs in your book, telling us what you know about each pair.
Extension:
Read the original Shakespearean version of Theseus’ speech:
What say you, Hermia? be advised fair maid:
To you your father should be as a god;
One that composed your beauties, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax
By him imprinted and within his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it.
Summarise the speech. What is he really saying and do you agree with it?
Tuesday 23rd February
We hope you enjoyed yesterday’s work. In this episode we meet the ‘Mechanicals’, a group of Athenian tradesmen and hapless amateur actors, who are meeting to rehearse a play they are planning for Duke Theseus’s wedding day. Among them are Mistress Quince (the play’s director) and Nick Bottom the weaver (who desperately wants to play all the parts).
Watch:
There are six different Mechanicals assigned to play six different roles in the play-within-the-play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Watch the episode again and note which part is assigned to which character as it is allocated.
Activity 1: Use the activity sheet - describe the Mechanicals. Choose your own adjectives to describe the characters - eg:
- loud and confident for Bottom
- fearful and shy for Snug/Starveling
- nervous, organised, even bossy for Quince
Activity 2: Create a poster advertising the terrible ‘Mechanicals’ acting troupe. Include drawings of the characters, based on the animated characters from this adaptation.
Wednesday 24th February
Good morning! In this episode we meet Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of the Fairies. They are engaged in an argument that has confused the harmony of the natural world and is making the seasons alter. Oberon is angry that Titania will not give him one of her fairies to be his ‘henchman’ and instructs his servant Puck to use the juice of a special flower to enchant Titania. The next time she wakes from sleep, she will fall in love with whatever she sees, however hideous. Whilst Puck is fetching the flower, Oberon sees Demetrius cruelly shunning the lovelorn Helena in the woods, and decides to intervene…
Activity 1:
Look at the Activity Sheet 1. You can print the sheet and complete the speech bubbles and captions to tell us the story as you see it or you can make your own storyboard of this scene, telling what is happening, adding dialogue and captions.
Thursday 25th February
Good morning! The play is moving on and in this episode we meet Hermia and Lysander again. They are lost in the woods and decide to sleep rough on the forest floor. Seeing the Athenians on the ground, Puck messes up the instructions from Oberon and places the flower’s magic on Lysander’s eyes instead of Demetrius’ - with disastrous consequences!
Watch:
Activity 1: After examining Oberon and Puck’s use of the magic flower and accompanying verse passages, come up with your own magic flower, draw a picture of it and describe its properties.
Activity 2: Write a spell to be spoken when administering their magic flower.
Friday 26th February
Today is your chance to choose some of the activities outlined in the document below.
See if you can reach 100 points! Have fun!