Practical Ideas for Reading Shakespeare Plays with Kids
Reading Shakespeare’s plays with kids is a fantastic way to lay the foundation so your children can learn to appreciate and enjoy Shakespeare.
Unfortunately, the words and the language of Shakespeare’s plays can be intimidating for adults, making it intimidating to introduce the plays to children.
Do not let that stop you from tackling this subject with your younger students. They can learn to appreciate, enjoy, and perhaps even fall in love with the world of Shakespeare. And you can right along with them!
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Enjoying Shakespeare’s Play with Kids
Begin with some basic information about Shakespeare’s life and the Globe Theater. Once you are familiar with Shakespeare, then it is time to pick a play to read.
Shakespeare’s plays are divided into three basic groups: comedies, tragedies, and histories. (Sometimes a fourth group, the romances, is included.)
When selecting a play for your younger children, I recommend beginning with comedies. The storylines are generally light-hearted, memorable, and engaging for kids. I have read, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Much Ado about Nothing” to my children.
We have also read, “Romeo and Juliet“, though I don’t suggest starting there. It just happens to be one of my personal favorites. Starting with a personal favorite makes it possible for your enthusiasm to be contagious.
Reading a Story Version of Shakespeare
Begin with a story version of the play. There are many great story versions of Shakespeare. The stories will introduce your children to the characters and the basic plot. Many of these versions include text from the original play, though you will find some include more than others.
A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories
Angela McAllister
This is just one of the many options for a retelling of Shakespeare’s plays in story version. This particular title includes classics such as The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Othello.
You can find many story versions of the works of Shakespeare. Be sure to read the table of contents to find the plays that you are looking for.
Illustrated Stories from Shakespeare
From Usborne
This is a wonderful collection of six retellings of William Shakespeare’s best-loved plays – a perfect mix of comedy, tragedy, magic, and romance, retold for younger readers. It is full of colorful illustrations from the Usborne Young Reading Programme. It contains the plays “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “Hamlet”, “Macbeth”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “The Tempest”, and “Twelfth Night”. It also includes a section at the back on the life and times of Shakespeare.
The Usborne Complete Shakespeare
Stories from All the Plays
This collection of stories from Shakespeare’s plays, with beautiful illustrations and quotations, is the perfect introduction to Shakespeare. Each story includes short details about the main characters and famous and memorable quotations from the play. This is a fabulous book that will be referred to again and again, by both children and adults.
Shakespeares Stories
Sam Newman and Gaynor Aaltonen
Sam Newman’s cleverly reworked text retains many of Shakespeare’s own inimitable turns of phrase while simplifying and clarifying the language to make stories accessible to children.
Reading Picture Book Versions of Shakespeare’s Plays
Of course, there are also incredible picture books that do a beautiful job of retelling these stories.
Romeo and Juliet
Michael Rosen and Jane Ray (illustrator)
This version of Romeo and Juliet by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Jane Ray is my favorite BY FAR!
The story includes much of the original text from the play but it also summarizes along the way as needed. This version was engaging to my entire family.
Once everyone is familiar with the basic plot and the characters, then you can dive in deeper or leave it at that. Last year, we simply read the story version, enjoyed it, and then moved on to other learning.
William Shakespeare’s The Tempest
Georghia Elllinas
Ariel is a spirit of the air who can fly, ride on clouds, and glow bright as fire. When his master, the magician Prospero, is overthrown by his brother as the Duke of Milan, Ariel joins Prospero and his baby daughter on a journey that will bring them to a beautiful island ruled by the monstrous Caliban — and to a series of events that lead to a vengeful storm, confounding spells, true romance, and a master who is persuaded to give his transgressors a second chance. Narrated from Ariel’s perspective, the story is told in language that is true to the original play but accessible to all. With exquisite illustrations by acclaimed artist Jane Ray, this captivating retelling is a magical way to introduce children to one of the best-loved works of the world’s greatest playwright.
William Shakespeare’s A MidSummer Night’s Dream
Georghia Ellinas
There’s trouble in the Fairy Kingdom. King Oberon wants to teach Titania, his proud wife, a lesson. Things heat up when four young nobles arrive in the enchanted forest from Athens. They’re all in love—but with the wrong person. It’s up to Puck, a playful sprite who isn’t above a bit of mischief after dark, to do his master’s bidding, trick Queen Titania, and dial down the drama among foolish lovers. With a certain potion at his disposal, what could go wrong? Retold from Puck’s point of view in simple, accessible language, peppered with quotes from Shakespeare’s original play, and brought to life in Jane Ray’s lush, moonlit illustrations, this introduction to the Bard’s most enchanting comedy hints at the richness of his work while being a lovely keepsake edition in its own right.
Shakespeare Plays With Kids: Study a Specific Scene
In addition to reading a story version, dive deeper into the original text of a specific scene or party of a scene. If you aren’t familiar with the play, a basic google search will help you find memorable speeches or dialogues in any of the plays.
There are resources to help you with a basic English translation, though some of the deeper word meanings and word plays will require more effort.
The Shakespeare Made Easy Series is a fantastic tool to help you and your children understand the “plain English” meaning behind Shakespeare’s words. The pages on the right-hand side have the original text while the pages on the left-hand side of a more “plain English” version of the play. You can instantly check the basic meaning of what is being said. If you want to dig deeper into a specific section or term, you will have to go hunting a little online.
No Fear Shakespeare is another book series that can be found online for free. It makes the language of Shakespeare more accessible.
Similar to the Shakespeare Made Easy Series, the online book has both the modern and original translations.
Shakespeare Plays with Kids: An Example
After reading a story version of Much Ado About Nothing, I wanted to dig deeper into some of the original text. After a little research, I selected Act 1, Scene 1, lines 92-114.
First, we watched other people read through the scene in Kenneth Branagh’s movie version:
Then we read through it as a family while I summarized what was being said in my own words (as I studied it the night before).
NOTE: If you don’t have enough copies of the play for each child, you can do a little copy/paste and print the scene out for everyone.
Finally, we looked up words that we didn’t know and in doing so, gained a deeper appreciation for Shakespeare’s wit. For example, take a look at this conversation in Act 1, Scene 1 of “Much Ado About Nothing”:
BENEDICK
I would my horse had the speed of your tongue and so good
a continuer. But keep your way, i’ God’s name. I have done.
BEATRICE
You always end with a jade’s trick. I know you of old.
In these lines, we were confused by the meaning of a jade’s trick because the modern English version simply said: You always slip out of the argument like this. I know you from before.
We understood the basic meaning but wanted to know what a jade’s trick meant. So we looked it up. We discovered that “Literally, a “jade” is an ill-conditioned horse; so a “jade’s trick” is what you would expect from such a creature—that it drop out of a race before the finish.”
Benedict wishes his horse were as fast as Beatrice’s tongue and she declares him an ill-conditioned horse that has to drop out of the race of wits before it is over. The quick wit of Beatrice to respond to Benedict’s horse comment with a horse insult of her own is lost in the modern translation.
But it is BRILLIANT.
This is just one example of digging in a little deeper by looking up unfamiliar words and terms. Thank goodness for google and the internet. Both have helped make Shakespeare a topic that can be tackled by this homeschooling mom.
Let Your Kids Act Out Shakespeare
Assign each member of your family (or group) a part to read. Acting out scenes with props, especially swords, adds to the fun:
Don’t try to act out the ENTIRE play. Choose a favorite or well-known scene or two and have some fun with it.
Watch a Shakespeare Play or Movie with Your Kids
Live theater is the best option, but it isn’t always available at the right time or location. Thankfully, many of Shakespeare’s plays have movie adaptations available for purchase or rent through Amazon or Netflix.
As always, use parental discretion when selecting a movie for your kids to watch. Much Ado About Nothing did have a scene that I fast-forwarded.
Homeschooling families can pop some popcorn and can consider the movie as their schoolwork for the day.
Shakespeare’s Plays with Kids: Create a Momento
In order to remember the characters and plot of the play we had studied, we decided to make a visual reminder. We all contributed our ideas to create a poster together.
The kids weren’t interested right away, so I sat on the floor with posterboard and markers. I asked my sons (ages 9 and 6) to help me decide how to write the bad guy’s name, Don John. Once they saw what we were doing, my daughters joined us to add a few things as well.
In the end, we created a fun memory for our family.
We hung our simple poster in the schoolroom. Everyone made a contribution and I am happy with the outcome. When we tackle another play, we will add another poster to our collection.
Have you tackled Shakespeare with your family?
What plays have you enjoyed the most?
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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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I just finished watching your scope about this and came over here to say thank you! I haven’t done much Shakespeare with my daughter yet, but she’s memorized the first passage from “How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare” and loved “Will’s Words” and spots and identifies his portrait everywhere, so I think we’re ready to begin! I’d ordered the Usborne book before your scope had ended!
I also want to give you this idea from my college Shakespeare class. I had an awesome professor. We were to keep a journal and had a certain number of things we had to do in it from a great big list. The one I loved most was to take a comic strip (I used Calvin and Hobbes), white out the words, and replace them with words from a scene from Shakespeare. I had such fun with a scene with lots of insults! I think kids would love giving it a try, too.
That is BRILLIANT!!! Thanks Lise. I am going to try that!
When I started enjoying Shakespeare with my very young children, I followed the methods laid out in How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare and they worked so well! However, since we preparing for a local performance, we did not do a comedy first as MANY people recommend. Our first play was Hamlet! And guess what? My little boys loved it. I think that the comedies can be kind of confusing. Midsummer and Much Ado About Nothing are probably the most straightforward, but it is hard to keep track of everyone when they are pretending to be someone else!?!?!? Since then we have prepared for and enjoyed performances of Macbeth (another favorite!), Midsummer, Much Ado, and Julius Caesar.
Now that I have an older child (4th grade), we are loving reading through whole plays together as a family. We use Folger’s editions so there are lots of notes to help with the vocabulary, but we don’t worry about understanding all of it. We read for enjoyment and glance over to get help with any vocab that interests us. But I will say we are doing Romeo and Juliet for the first time and it is kind of a difficult play to read! Long and with so much wordplay and rhyming couplets. Julius Caesar was easier to read!!!!
I appreciate your ideas of more activities to extend the interaction with the play. Something I will continue to think about as our relationship with Shakespeare grows and matures.