“All the world’s my way” ~ Shakespeare

Stratford
Friday, September 20, 2019

Sam:

On our car ride this morning, we learned a bit about Shakespeare and then we read a graphic novel version of Romeo and Juliet. The words are very different to our words today, but they sound kind of similar. It was hard to understand, but Mom told us what each line meant.

When we arrived in Stratford-on-Avon, the first place we went was a big theatre called the Royal Shakespeare Company. Inside the building, there was “The Play’s the Thing” exhibition. It was kind of small, but I still learned a lot. It is about Shakespeare and theatre

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There was an area when you got to go and review some lines from one of his plays. There was a chest of drawers labeled a – z that had various items in them that you could find in theatres for making sound effects, costumes, etc.

My favourite part was the pulley. There was a character called Ariel that you could move around over top of people using the pulley. Charlotte’s favourite part was dressing up and acting.

Charlotte:

Next we walked to Shakespeare’s school. There was an actor playing a teacher who was funny. He pretended we were school boys and commanding us, “Uncross your legs! Sit up straight!” He told us that they started school at 6 in the morning and ended at 6 in the evening. They learned in Latin by reciting and repeating things all day.

We got to use a quill and ink and practice our names in cursive. It was easy, and I liked it. We dressed up as students and a teacher. The teacher’s cloak was very heavy and had tons of buttons. If kids got in trouble, they got smacked with sticks, called a birch.

Sam:

When we left the school, we went back to the car to get our lunch. We decided to look for a spot to eat along the riverbank. On the other side of the river there was a line of benches, so we crossed a bridge and found our spot. We watched lots of swans while we ate. Another funny thing, we saw a tourist in a motorboat, trying to steer by us. She was zigzagging because she kept tiring the steering wheel all the way in one direction and then the other. We were giggling.

Charlotte:

As we’re walking, we saw lots of statues that we posed by.

Then I saw a knight statue, and I said, “Oh look at that statue!”

As I was looking at it, it moved its eyes and then turned its body and waved at me. I was freaked out! Mom laughed. It was a human!

It gestured for me to come over, and I went and posed with him. Sam posed with him after, even though he didn’t want to at first.

Sam:

The was a pedestrian only street that we were walking down to get to Shakespeare’s birth house. We saw it but decided not to go in because all we really wanted was to see it.

There was a shop called Alohamora, and it was all about Harry Potter. Inside there was a lot of cool posters and a wizard chess set that I loved.

Charlotte:

We drove to the cottage where Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway, grew up. It had lots of gardens.