A themed poetry teatime in our house typically includes a few purposefully selected book titles, delicious treats, and good company.
Our Shakespeare-themed Teatime was no different.
Shakespeare Teatime: The Decorations
Our family is reading, “A Midsummer Nights Dream,” and it was the inspiration behind our table decor.
I wanted to create a bit of a forest feel, so the table was covered with 2 yards of fabric with a grassy print. This gave our space the feeling of a forest floor.
I dug into the toy bin and used the fairy figurines to decorate the table. The fairy king, queen, and little sprites were seated at teapots and around the center of the table.
If you are reading a Shakespeare play with your kids, then pull out some fun elements from the play for the decorations. Of course, some plays are easier to do this with than others.
Shakespeare Teatime: The Poetry
We kept it simple with two poetry books, but there are many titles available.
Poetry for Young People: William Shakespeare features many famous sonnets and soliloquies.
To Sleep, Perchance to Dream contains short excerpts and famous lines from a variety of Shakespeare sources.
In addition to these poetry books, teatime is a great time to read an adapted version of a Shakespeare Play:
Illustrated Stories from Usborne
Leon Garfield’s Shakespeare Stories
Shakespeare Teatime: Let’s Eat
You can serve typical teatime food or attempt something from the 16th century.
Most Elizabethan-Era desserts I found online had Elizabethan-Era instructions, which are very vague.
Instead, I turned to a few English desserts on Cooks.com. I am pretty certain they are not from the 1600’s but they worked to provide an English flair for our teatime. The kids and I enjoyed this English Toffee Dessert quite a bit.
If you don’t find an English dessert that works for you, just whip up a few classic teatime goodies. I typically turn to strawberries and delicious scones.
There is always this Shakespeare cookie cutter you can use with a simple sugar cookie recipe.
Shakespeare Teatime: Quotes on Canvas Activity
For my Boomerang Book Club, we painted quotes from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” onto a canvas.
All you will need is:
- a blank canvas for acrylic painting
- acrylic paints
- paint pens
- graphite paper
- Your favorite quote printed in the font you want to use (I use PicMonkey for designing)
You can watch exactly how to do it here:
I am wearing my Romeo and Juliet scarf, which I love. The entire text of the play is printed on this scarf.
I recommend having some fun with your teatime and wearing a Shakespeare shirt while drinking from your Shakespeare mug. Cheers!
For more ideas, follow my Pinterest Boards. You can find one on Teaching Shakespeare or another group board for Simple Poetry Teatime ideas.
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She believes that creativity, laughter, and fun are the backbone for engaging and inspiring homeschools. You can find her encouragement and tips on this blog, Mary Hanna Wilson.
She is an enneagram 7 and an extrovert. She enjoys traveling, tea (iced or hot), good conversations, and books. You can connect with her on Instagram and Facebook.
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Thanks for this! You inspired me to do a Shakespeare-themed teatime today. We read “To Sleep, Perchance to Dream,” a tiny bit of “Poetry for Young People: William Shakespeare,” and the babylit board book “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” (I loved that one, to my great surprise, as I thought it was odd to put Shakespeare into board-book format.)
I love this. I will definitely have to check out that board book. That is so interesting! Glad you all had fun.