Jack and the Beanstalk

One of my favorite things to do for Earth Week and Spring was to plant seeds and watch them grow.  Large lima beans work great for this, and before planting I always soaked beans in a small amount of water for a few hours, and allowed the children to investigate and explore them.  When the beans are softened it is easy to remove the seed coat, and to open them up and see the roots and shoots inside.  Here is a great recording sheet I found on Pinterest for the children to label the parts of a bean.

And of course studying beans leads so nicely into the fairy tale Jack and the Beanstalk!   I found another great idea on Pinterest that combines Jack and the Beanstalk and planting beans!

Here is a page of castles – the children could color them, add cotton balls or fiberfill clouds, then tape them onto pencils or straws and push them into the cup where they planted bean seeds.

Fairy tales are a wonderful way to encourage children to retell stories.  It’s always fun to read lots of different versions, and then compare and contrast them, but I love just telling fairy tales first.   It is always great to have pictures to use on a magnet or flannel board.

Thanks to pre-kpages and Scrappin Doodles for these images!

Here is a link to a simplified version of Jack and the Beanstalk that I liked to tell.

Story copy

I also love to have the children act out stories, here are some pictures of the characters you could use for headbands or necklaces.

Here are some pictures that could be used for sequencing or retelling the story too.

  You might put these pictures onto writing paper, and ask the children to write a sentence about what is happening in each picture.

My grandson in Kindergarten this year has been learning about persuasive writing.  I thought it would be fun for the children to discuss and write about whether Jack was right or wrong to take the hen and magic harp from the giant.

Here are some giant footprints.  They could be copied onto construction paper or cardstock and tied onto the children’s feet to retell the story, or they could just be cut out and used to measure things or distances in the classroom.

I hope you have a great time celebrating Spring and loving the earth!