The Swoon

We’ve amped up our studies of poetry and drama recently in Elementary. This week, we invited Shakespeare in Action in for a Midsummer Night’s Dream workshop. They did a great job with engaging the children with the text using a variety of drills and reading exercises. At the end, they broke the play down into tableaus. The children then followed it up in class by storyboarding the action and completing character maps. We were amazed at the depth of their comprehension.

This Monday’s poetry recitation included a stunning version of the witches’ speeches from Act I of Macbeth. We continued our studies of poetry with an analysis of songs including Bobcaygeon by the Tragically Hip, the text to Sans Saen’s Danse Macabre, Poe’s The Raven and a fun exploration of Savoy Truffle by The Beatles. Next week, we will begin studying poetic form.