Romeo & Juliet's Crime Scene

To introduce my students to Romeo & Juliet and have them make some predictions before we started reading, this week I made a crime scene of their deaths. It turned out to be one of those lessons where every student is immediately engaged.

The forensics teacher set me up with caution tape, plastic sheeting, some skulls and bones, and fake blood. I set up evidence markers for my crowbar, a stage dagger, and a vial from the theater department. I intended a table to serve as Juliet's deathbed, but it needs a tablecloth and pillow to look the part. Then I put a picture of Roman catacombs on the digital projector and taped some body outlines on the plastic sheeting.

Next year I think I'll skip the plastic sheeting and fake blood. Some students thought the blood was rubber and others thought it was a tear in the plastic. And the whole reason for the plastic sheeting was so I wouldn't stain the carpet with the fake blood. I also forgot Paris, which would have added some mystery to the activity.

Weeks later, when we were finishing the play, students could be overheard saying, "So that's why there was a crowbar!" or, "That's why she died on top of him."

If you'd like to borrow this idea, here are copies of the evidence gathering sheet, Romeo's autopsy report, and Juliet's autopsy report. If you have other ideas to make this activity better or your own unique way of starting a Shakespeare unit, leave it in the comments.