Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks: Begin Your Shakespeare Portfolio

Prayer During Hurricane Season

Prayer for Hurricane Season
O God, Master of this passing world, hear the humble voices of your children. The Sea of Galilee obeyed your order and returned to its former quietude; you are still the Master of land and sea. We live in the shadow of a danger over which we have no control. The Gulf, like a provoked and angry giant, can awake from its seeming lethargy, overstep its conventional boundaries, invade our land and spread chaos and disaster. During this hurricane season, we turn to You, O loving Father. Spare us from past tragedies whose memories are still so vivid and whose wounds seem to refuse to heal with the passing of time. O Virgin, Star of the Sea, Our Beloved Mother, we ask you to plead with your Son in our behalf, so that spared from the calamities common to this area and animated with a true spirit of gratitude, we will walk in the footsteps of your Divine Son to reach the heavenly Jerusalem where a storm-less eternity awaits us. Amen. Originally dedicated to the victims of Hurricane Audrey in 1957. - Fr. Al Volpe, Cameron Parish, LA

January 29, 2008

Begin Your Shakespeare Portfolio

Print these sheets for your Shakespeare Portfolio:

Quiz --- To begin your study print out this quiz and go through it orally with your student then place inside your Shakespeare Portfolio.

Classification of Shakespeare's Plays --- go over the list and discuss with your student the 3 Classifications (Comedies/ Histories/ Tragedies). This should be pretty self-explanatory for your student to understand.

Shakespeare's Houses --- Browse this site with your student and tour Shakespeare's houses and gardens. If your library has a copy of Shakespeare Country by Howard Loxton it's an outstanding pictorial supplement for this study and gives you a real "inside view" into Shakespeare's world. If your library doesn't have it, I have seen several cheap copies on the web.

Here is the fun part. Go to these two sites: Phrases from Shakespeare and Shakespeare Quotes. My students enjoyed hearing some familiar quotes that Shakespeare wrote or used in his plays and we use everyday but never knew it. Interesting observation: "Shakespeare contributed more phrases to the English language than the Bible or any other work - and many more than any other individual."

Print out this 5-sheet PDF file and give to your student with a highlighter pen. Have them highlight all the phrases they are familiar with. Some might surprise you:

All that glitters is not gold
As dead as a doornail
Eaten out of house and home (all parents with teenagers recite this one)
Fie, Foh, and Fum, I smell the blood of a British man (and you thought the Giant in Jack and the Beanstalk said that)
Good riddance
His beard was a white as snow (And we all gave Clement Moore and St. Nick credit for that one)
In a pickle
In stitches
In the twinkling of an eye
Like the Dickens
Love is blind (I heard someone say this today)
Make your hair stand on end
Neither a borrow or lender be
Too much of a good thing