Midsummer Night's Dream - 2 fun games

I have been seeking ways to do more engaging activities during our Midsummer Night's Dream unit. I found these awesome activities and although i was reluctant to try them with my chatty, mostly male, Grade 9 English class (last block of the day also!!!) I gave it a shot and was pleased with how into it they got (ok, they prizes helped motivate them) I was also super excited to discover how much they had retained from the play thus far!

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Scavenger Hunt

Part One:

Discover how your classmates’ opinions and experiences relate to the play! Walk around the room and find a student to which each statement applies and ask him/her to initial the square. Students may initial each paper only once! The first student to complete all 25 squares wins!! Share your findings with the class and discuss the situations to which you can relate and why.

___ has played a trick on somebody Puck	___ has "loved" someone who didn’t return the feeling	___ has felt jealousy	___ has envied a friend’s good looks	___ has had parents disapprove of a relationship
___ has tried to run away from a problem	___ believes in love at first sight	___ has fought with a friend over a boy/girl	___ regrets falling in love with someone	___ has had funny or bizarre dreams recently
___ believes that looks don’t matter when in love	___ likes to tease or mock others	___ has disobeyed a parent	___ has been annoyed by a persistent admirer	___ has had a crush on the friend of a boyfriend/ girlfriend
___ enjoys magic shows or tricks	___ has gotten completely lost	___ is sometimes fickle about love	___ has told a friend’s secret	___ has been spoiled
___ enjoys plays and shows	___ has rudely insulted a friend	___ has refused a loved one’s demands	___ likes to play "matchmaker"	___ has performed on stage

Then on a BINGO sheet have students write out these names in random order:

Demetrius Hermia Oberon Snout

Egeus Hippolyta Peter Quince Snug

Francis Flute Lysander Philostrate Theseus

Helena Nick Bottom Puck Titania

Bingo Directions for Teachers: Use the following descriptions or quotes to test your students’ knowledge of the characters of A Midsummer Night’s Dream!

Descriptions:

1. wants to take the changeling child from the Fairy Queen (Oberon)

2. falls in love with a mortal while under the spell of a love potion (Titania)

3. the Duke of Athens (Theseus)

4. the Queen of the Amazons (Hippolyta)

5. says the "Prologue" of the play Pyramus and Thisby (Peter Quince)

6. plays the lead male role in the play Pyramus and Thisby (Nick Bottom)

7. plays the lead female role in the play Pyramus and Thisby (Francis Flute)

8. is worried about learning his lines for the play Pyramus and Thisby (Snug)

9. plays the Wall in the play Pyramus and Thisby (Snout)

10. asks the Duke to force his daughter to marry Demetrius (Egeus)

11. the man Helena loves (Demetrius)

12. the man Hermia loves (Lysander)

13. reveals her best friend’s secret to the man she loves (Helena)

14. puts a love potion in the wrong man’s eyes (Puck)

15. runs away with her lover against her father’s wishes (Hermia)

16. does not think the Duke will enjoy the play Pyramus and Thisby (Philostrate)

Quotes:

1. "The course of true love never did run smooth." (Lysander)

2. "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." (Helena)

3. "Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art translated." (Peter Quince)

4. "I am that merry wanderer of the night." (Puck)

5. "The villain is much lighter-heeled than I. I followed fast, but faster did he fly." (Lysander)

6. "Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell. It fell upon a little western flower, Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound" (Oberon)

7. "I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass, if he go about to expound this dream." (Nick Bottom)

8. "The object and the pleasure of mine eye, Is only Helena." (Demetrius)

9. "I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again: Mine ear is much enamour’d of thy note" (Titania)

10. "Nay, faith, let not me play a woman; I have a beard coming." (Francis Flute)

11. "Lovers and madmen have such seething brains …" (Theseus)

12. "A play there is, my lord, some ten words long … But by ten words, my lord, it is too long." (Philostrate)

13. "… I present a wall: And such a wall, as I would have you think, that had in it a crannied hole or chink, Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby, Did whisper often very secretly." (Snout)

14. "Four days will quickly steep themselves in night; Four nights will quickly dream away the time" (Hippolyta)

15. "Have you the lion’s part written? pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study." (Snug)

16. "You thief of love! what, have you come by night And stolen my love’s heart from him?" (Hermia)

My grade 9s did really well with the descriptions. The quotes were a bit harder, but they still did a good job!

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