Jack and the Beanstalk

Retold by Virginia Haviland, Jack and the Beanstalk, S.D Schindler, Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 35-44 pp. Children’s Fairy Tales, Grades K-3

Jack is a young boy whose mother tells him to go and sell their cow because she no longer produced milk for them to sell. On his way to the market he meets a strange peddler who in exchange for his cow offers Jack magic beans. The story is told to be seen from a child’s perspective with imaginary minds and the idea what troubles can occur when one simply doesn’t follow one simple rule and how lessons can be learned from mistakes made.

Activity:

1. A great way for students to visualize how it was that the beans grew would be for them to actually plant their own. A teacher can bring seeds and small containers and student can plant their own seeds and watch them grow. To build on this teacher can have a writing assignment such as for student to build on to the story or even slightly change the ending such as “What would have happened if Jack had not chopped down the beanstalk?”