Years ago, I installed this into the library. It is certainly looking a little worn, but the children still love it and want to know all about it. So of course, I had to find yet another version of Jack and the Beanstalk. This is my 6th version of the story!
I love this story for preschoolers because it gives us so much to work with. We can talk about fear and emotions—the giant can feel scary at first. “Fee Fi Fo Fum” is wonderful practice for speech and language. We can even take the story into STEM and science by planting a bean and watching it grow. The learning opportunities truly go on and on.
Here are the ones I have read through the years.
Could they be magic beans?
Our vocabulary word:
This version has a fairy.
Fee Fi Fo Fum!
“Be he alive or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread!” Yikes!
Golden eggs!?
Jack decided to go up the beanstalk again…(we all decided we would probably not – lol).
A magic harp!
In this version, Jack asks his mother for a saw. It is usually an axe.
We always are relieved when the giant is “never to be seen again”!
We practiced our Fee Fi Fo Fums with stomping. Each child took home a magic bean to plant.
On the projector. Can you see Jack climbing up? Or the giant in the castle?
We made this cute craft during my after school classes. We are hoping our magic bean will grow up to the castle!
We then followed a giant footprint. Does it belong to the giant? We “climbed the beanstalk” up to “the castle”.
We found the hen who lays the golden eggs! We also found some magic harps. We quickly grabbed them all and ran back down the beanstalk before the giant woke up.
When we were safely back in the library we strung our harps and matched Fee Fi Fo Fum words.
Print it off here:
Berto approves of this version too.
If you want to do down the rabbit hole of the other books here they are:
Find fun activities to go with this book here: