Fairy Tale Unit: Jack and the Beanstalk

Our first fairy tale today was Jack and the Beanstalk.  I set up this felt board the night before and had some coloring pages for ED since she's usually the first one up and she's always ready to dive into the day!  She was more interested in helping me bake...and sample... and mix... and sample!

We made graham crackers and cut them into castle and cottage parts that I hoped we would put together later in the morning for an edible scene. (Here's the graham cracker recipe I use.  We love graham crackers!)

We also made some wholemeal bread rolls -- and shaped one into the shape of a vine.

Once the kids were up, had eaten and the bread was rising, we headed into the schoolroom. I had some sheets with the main characters that they could color as I read the story.  They were very industrious! They were working on parts to a diorama they put together.

While I was reading, ED also did a number of her activities like bean counting (from Confessions of a Homeschooler -- J is for Jellybeans), the letters B and J, not to mention page after page of coloring.

 

After I read the long (wonderful, descriptive) version, I read this short rhyming version that I got from the Teacherfilebox.  I had taken all the rhyming words, typed them up and printed them out. DD and LD worked together to match up all the words.

They also did quite a bit of writing.  LD had to explain who the villain and hero was (and why).  He also had to write the ending to the story when I explained that after Jack killed the ogre someone notified the police....

Pretty soon we were all really hungry.  We had visions of making a lovely display (the cottage, beans, the vine and the castle), but we ran out of patience.  We all (me included) just wanted to EAT!! So, we propped the graham cracker cottage and castle up with a bread roll, snapped a picture and had tuna melts, fruit and graham crackers with white icing (see the clouds hastily globbed near the castle for the photo???)  for lunch!

I forgot to mention that ED also practiced the letters B and J and made them out of bread dough.

Here are the three dioramas of Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack climbs up the  paper towel tube beanstalk. And below are closeups of their projects. 

 

You might be interested in our Fairy Tale-themed writing paper (over at our new location)

Don't miss this Huge List of Things to Do with Your Preschooler (100+ Activities) It's a free printable!

Other related posts you might be interested in:

• Preschool at Home: Activities you can do with your 2-4 Year Olds, Fine Motor Skills
• Preschool at Home: Learning Letters
• Preschool at Home: Alphabet Activities
• Preschool at Home: Handwriting
• Preschool at Home: Science for 2-4 Year Olds
• Preschool Montessori: Vertebrate and Invertebrate Study and Free Cards
• Preschool at Home: A Few Math Ideas for the 2 1/2-3 year old crowd
• Preschool Math Activities (K4) Montessori Math and More
• Preschool at Home: Lapbooks
• You might also be interested in the post: Homeschool Preschool Year in Review which was a recap of many of our preschool activities this past year.
• Preschool Geography: Activities for learning about where we live in the world, Montessori world map work and more
• Preschool Geography: Maps and More
• Animals and Their Groups – Sorting Cards
• The Seven Continents and World Landmarks
• Various Free Montessori 3-Part Cards
• Teach Your Child to Read  for fun ideas that help your child learn to read! 

Remember our blog has moved to homeschoolden.com. See you again soon!~Liesl

Our next fairy tale is The Emperor's New Clothes.