Children are typically introduced to the life and works of playwright William Shakespeare in high school, but second and third graders who attended the 6-week Shakespeare workshop at Seeds of Knowledge Education Center in Wiscasset discovered why he’s considered one of the greatest storytellers of all time.

Lisa Truesdell guided the children through a variety of reading, listening, acting and writing activities to help them experience the brilliant language, complexity and excitement of Shakespeare’s stories.

First, the children learned about Shakespeare’s life and the Elizabethan era by listening to “William Shakespeare and the Globe” written by Aliki. Knowing what life was like during that time and how people experienced theater laid the foundation for understanding why Shakespeare wrote as he did.

Children realized that Shakespeare coined many words and phrases that we still use today! They identified the rhythmic iambic pentameter in Shakespeare’s sonnets and then practiced writing their own rhythmic poetry. After listening to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” the children worked as a group to act out Puck’s speech.

When studying “Hamlet,” the children made character maps showing the different relationships among the characters. Then for the final class, they brought Hamlet to life by using scripts, props, and costumes to perform the last scene for an audience of parents and siblings.

For information about more workshops like these, visit www.seedsofknowledgeec.com.