As You Wish - Princess Bride Theme Unit

Completely unintentionally my class is doing a thematic unit on the Princess Bride (one of my top ten favorite movies). Here is the back story, if you just want the resources skip down. Late last week one student and I were hanging out in the classroom while the other students and staff were in the cafeteria. Usually this student listens to music or a book on tape or just chats (via Dynavox) with me, but this day our conversation lead us to the Princess Bride. He said he really wanted to watch it and I happened to have in on my laptop in my iTunes. Besides who am I to deny that kind of fun during someone's lunch break?

I have never seen this student so into anything. He loved The Princess Bride (and who can blame him). This evolved into a classroom wide phenomenon, a couple of staff and the PT had seen the movie and loved it, some others had never seen the movie. We are going to watch in three parts (two down one to go) and we are doing various activities to improve engagement as we watch.

Here are the other things we are gong to do in our spur of the moment Princess Bride theme unit:

General Princess Bride Resources

• Wikipedia Princess Bride
• Spark Notes
  

Arts and Crafts

• Cubee Crafts Princess Bride Figures
• Battle of Wits Coloring Page
• Cliffs of Insanity Coloring Page
• Fire Swap Coloring Page
• True Love Coloring Page
  
• Buttercup Paper Doll
• Westley Paper Doll
• Favorite Quote Wall Signs (buy wooden signs at the craft store, paint your favorite quote on them and decorate to excess)
• make Dread Pirate Roberts masks or Princess Buttercup Tiaras
  

Free Worksheets (most are for general ed and for the book)

• worksheet packet
• Princess Bride Study Pack
• Princess Bride Viewing Sheet
• Big Screen, Small Screen
• Be sure to check Adapted Learning and Classroom Suite Exchange
  

Computer Resources

• Princess Bride Wallpaper
• Princess Bride Game
• Which Princess Bride Character are You? (for the record I come out as Fezzik)
  

Science - Study the Capybara (a true rodent of unusual size)

• Wikipedia Capybara
• Kids Zone Capybara
• C is for Capybara
• Capybara in South Africa
• You Tube Capybara

Science - other ideas

• sink or float? (play act Vizinni or the Dread Pirate Roberts tossing things overboard and see if they sink or float)
• learn about eels
• learn about suction
• learn about water wheels
  

Cooking

• Miracle Max Revival Pills (aka Rice Crispy Treat balls painted in melted chocolate)

Adapted PE

• using pool toy "noodles" have a fencing match or joust a ball of a tee
• make an obstacle course that includes sitting on a large bolster roll (Buttercup's horse), sitting on a scooter board and pulling across the floor using a rope (the cliffs of insanity), "noodle jousting" (see above - sword fight), steering around obstacles and then going for a swim in a ball pit (the fire swamp and quick sand), pushing a wheelbarrow (storming the castle)

Sensory

• sensory box filled with sand (aka quick sand in the fire swamp) and plastic rodent toys (our dollar store has these)
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Be sure to check Adapted Learning and Classroom Suite Exchange (I will be posting Boardmaker items to Adapted Learning this weekend.)