A great way to introduce children to Shakespeare is through Tales of Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb.

Unlike some other versions of 'Shakespeare for kids' type books, this version still manages to keep the rich language of Shakespeare - but in a form more readily understood by children. The plays are condensed but still contain the essence of the plot. The book itself is available free from Gutenberg.




I have also noticed that the stories are available as FREE Audiobooks from both Librivox and Audiobooks For Free (although with the latter I recommend you paying the few dollars for better sound quality).

I found that the children liked to act out the stories with paper dolls when listening to them. This helped them keep the characters straight! You can buy Shakespeare Paper doll books (see below), but being a cheapskate, I used these free printable paper dolls (Female dolls / Male dolls)

Finished my 31 Water Experiments and looking for more inspiration?.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO for short!) in Australia, have a great free weekly science email they send out, called Science by Email.

Each week they send the latest science news, as well as fun activities, experiments, and interesting links. The experiments range in how easy or complex they are, so this would be good for little ones as well as older children.

I have found it useful to get ideas from them each week, and would recommend subscribing.

Arkive is an amazing collection of wildlife photos and videos. It is very comprehensive, and it would be a wonderful way to get find out about an animal for a project.



If you click on 'Education' at the bottom of the site, you will also find some free powerpoint presentations you can download, as well as educational games.

One of the things we tried last week was String art or Curve Stitching.

You probably remember doing this yourself, when you were a kid. The idea is to stitch thread between points on a grid, to make a pattern. The size of the grid and the thickness of the thread can be varied depending on the age of the child (use yarn for the little ones).

There are lots of free templates and instructions on the web. We used MathCats, but this Montessori site had good instructions for making your own patterns.

I am keeping this up my sleeve for a quiet afternoon! We are going to make paper Boomerangs.

The link takes you to a page with 4 download buttons (2 for A4 size paper and 2 for LTR). One of each contains the instructions, and one the actual boomerang cut-outs. Because you need a bit more weight than just a single sheet of paper - the model consists of several layers that you stick together.

This is a fun looking science project that won't take you too long!

Details for making the hovercraft can be found here.

One of the ways of scheduling that we have tried (and liked) is to use workpockets!

I place eight to ten ideas cards in pockets in a wall hanging - and the children work through the ideas during the morning.

I don't use these every day, but I have found them a great way to get to those activities that you can't seem to schedule in. I always have a great pile of ideas or 'kits' that we keep meaning to use, and this system is great for actually doing something about them.

Find out more about WorkPockets here.

If you haven't tried lapbooks before, then I really recommend them.

They are a great way to get children researching a topic they are interested in.

We have made several lapbooks, and the children are very proud of them - often going back and reviewing them.

Need a new writing idea?


Check out these scavenger story bags.

• I love traffic. Click on the traffic lights to regulate the flow of traffic. But cause an accident, and it's game over.
• Do you remember Factory Balls from a previous newsletter?. Then you will probably enjoy Me and the Key. The game is simple - just find the key on each screen. Easy eh!
• Ready for something a bit more educational? Try this spelling game DeepLeap - but hurry, you lose points for each tile you don't use in time.

The Three Rs!

Resources, Read-Alouds, and Recommendations

Over To You...

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