It's all about stories!: Jack and the Beanstalk

We have been reading Jack and the Beanstalk by Nick Sharratt and Stephen Tucker and the more I thought about the idea, the more ideas I had...

This book is a brilliant version of the story - I love Nick Sharratt's illustrations anyway, in whatever book he illustrates, and this one really allows the children to interact with the story.

I emptied all the props on to the floor, one of the children guessed the name of the story before I had finished getting all the props out! We had little dolls house people for Jack and his Mum, a beanstalk made from a very long strip of paper and "post it" note leaf shapes for the leaves - the children stuck these on the beanstalk as it grew in the story. The giant was a large puppet boy, a hen puppet for the hen and some magic beans cut out from thick card. We read the story and the children joined in, talking about what was happening, acting out the parts and predicting what might happen next. We're covering a lot of EYFS Literacy outcomes here, such as listening to and joining in with stories, predicting, handling books and describing settings and characters.

Jack and his magic beans...

The hen that laid the golden eggs...

The giant and little Jack...

Our beanstalk...

After the story the children wanted to play Jack and the Beanstalk. They used the leaves to make their own beanstalk, and ran up it, running away from the giant, shouting "Giant, Giant". Here the children begin taking the learning in their own direction as they use inspiration from the story to create their own narratives (EYFS Expressive Arts and Design).

And some activities to go along with the story. We made biscuits shaped like Jack, his Mum, the giant, the golden eggs and the hen. The children helped to weigh the ingredients, mix and roll out the dough, chose their shapes, cut their dough and put them on the baking tray. We are bringing EYFS Mathematics into our learning here - weighing and measuring, spotting numbers on the scales and using mathematical language as we talk about what we are doing.

Then we planted bean seeds so the children can grow their own beanstalk. We planted French Bean seeds in little pots and will move them to a bigger pot as they grow big enough. We are introducing the children to EYFS Understanding the World here - in a longer term way. As our plants grow we can talk about growth and change over time.