The Princess Bride Revisited

Sometime ago I posted several entries about a theme unit on "The Princess Bride".

• As You Wish - Princess Bride Theme Unit
• More Princess Bride Resources
• Princess Bride Unit VoiceThread

With an entirely different group of students this unit is once again in action in our classroom.  The first week we focused on the movie and the characters, including Princess Bride Bingo, ship races like that between Vizzini and his crew and the Man in Black and making Miracle Max Revival Pills (chocolate covered rice crispy treat balls).  We also reviewed the story of The Princess Bride and took a little quiz.

Week two we focused on pirates including a giant pirate flag mosaic, (foam) pirate sword fights, pirate maps, pirate jokes (via a free iPhone app) and the making of various pirate props (eye patches, hooks, hats).

Next week we will focus on the animals of The Princess Bride - eels, ROUS (Rodents of Unusual Size - Capybaras) and horses.  We will make "eel" appetizers and paper plate eel crafts in addition to learning about eels, capybaras and horses.

We four will focus on "If I were in the Princess Bride".  We will learn about our assets, focus on the characters and which our favorites are and why we like them.  We will make trading cards at ReadWriteThink.org and do some rhyming like Fezzik.  We will also catch up on all the projects unfinished from the first three weeks!

Week five will be about Princess Bride Sensations!  We will try our hand at making things sink or float in water, work with sand like the lightening sand in the Fire Swamp and create a tactile board game (as well as play it). 

Finally week six will be our wrap up week with time spent scrap-booking about our summer of The Princess Bride and preparing for our end-of-summer theme party.

Resources:

The Princess Bride

• Princess Bride Bingo   
• The Princess Bride Comprehension

Pirates

• Pirate Hat  
• Pirate Crafts
• Pirate Printables  (include memory game and dominoes)
• Pin the eye patch on the pirate
• More Pirate Crafts
• Foam Sword "Fights"

Animals of The Princess Bride

• Eel Craft Project
• Wolf Eel Reading/Questions
• Gulper Eel Reading/Questions/Coloring
• Capybaras at Ed Helper 
• Capybera's Facts   
• Horse Craft   
• Horse Coloring Sheets         
• Play Horses    

If I Were In the Princess Bride

• Fezzik's Rhymes
• Castles
• Character Playing Cards
• My Assets 
• All About Weddings
• Toothpaste and Lotion Batik "Stained Glass" material
• Favorite Character Charm

Princess Bride Science and Sensations

• Digital Sand Art
• Sand Castles
• Sink or Float
• Sink or Float Cards
• Sink or Float Online Experiment
• Sink or Float Chant
• Sink or Float Science Game
• Safeville Poison Info
• Poison Safety Booklet

The Princess Bride Wrap-Up

• Princess Bride Party Ideas
• Favorite Quote Decoupage Plague
• Paper Bag Scrap Books

More Princess Bride Theme Unit Resources

I found some great foam swords at Rite-Aid for 2.99! We will be using them in fitness group in my class this week to do a little adapted fencing. Only six dollars for two of them!

Here are a few more resources found since the last Princess Bride Theme Unit post:

Audio Clips

• Princess Bride Sounds
• Princess Bride Sound Board
• Sound Quotes

Alternative Book Formats

• audio book read by Rob Reiner ($)

Games

• Miracle Max Game
• Fire Swamp Game

Snack Time Idea

• Have a "battle of the wits" snack - crusty fresh baked bread, apples and grape juice, then play a guessing game with some goblets from the thrift shop. Put a sticker (preferably with the universal symbol for poison on it) on the bottom of one goblet and have students try to guess which one it is under. Use the opportunity to teach this important survival sign.
  

Random Things

• As You Wish e-card
• Make Character Trading Cards
• Princess Bride Internet Hunt (will need to be adapted for special education use)
• Princess Bride Trivia Quiz (will also need adaptation)
• Movie Goofs (play spot the goof with your students, maybe use some kind of noise maker every time a goof is spotted)
• Castle Adventures from The Children's Museum of Indianapolis (tab/enter work to make this two switch scanable or use on SmartBoard - this site is pretty awesome, be sure to check it out)
  

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)
• 
  

Be sure to check Adapted Learning and Classroom Suite Exchange (I will be posting Boardmaker items to Adapted Learning this weekend.)