3rd Hour Blog

At the beginning of class, Mrs. Moritz explained to us our newest project, making masks for the dance in Romeo and Juliet. First, she told us what they were used for in Shakespearean times. They were used to cover one's face to hide their identity. Next, she showed us some examples that were made out of things like cardboard, plastic, or just regular paper. She also told us we will be learning a dance of that time on Thursday when the masks are due. After learning about the mask project, we began our journey into Romeo and Juliet. We moved the desks to make a stage and Mrs. Moritz began assigning roles based off volunteers. Of course, three boys were left to assign Romeo to. Earlier in the class, Mrs. Moritz said that in the love scene, Romeo would actually have to kiss Juliet. Matthew, Jeffrey, and I were left to be Romeo. We did rock, paper, scissors and unfortunately, I LOST. Before reading the books from when Mrs. Moritz's day, we were told to write down the act, scene, and line number of any time we see the word or any reference to "night". Obviously, it must be a significant word in the book. We read act 1 scene 1 with no difficulties except everyone cracking up at the line "bring me my longsword, ho!" Next, we watched a modern day version of the book and we were amazed how boring the book was but the movie was action packed. Mrs. Moritz explained that in Shakespear's time, sword fights were as entertaining to them as gun fights are to us. We just had enough time to read scene two. So far in the book, Romeo has stated that he loves someone but she does not love him back. He also plans a party. Could that be what we made the masks for? We'll see!