This week at school we read many versions of the book Jack & The Beanstalk. I choose to read this fairy tale this week because at outside time the students have been pretending that one of our ladders on the playground is a beanstalk. The students have been taking turns being “Jack” or the giant. If you are Jack you go up the beanstalk ladder and then whomever is the giant chases “Jack” all around the playground.

Here are some of the versions of the story we read this week:

Jack & The Bean Stalk by Richard Walker

Kate and the Beanstalk by Mary Pope Osborne

Waynetta and the Cornstalk: A Texas Fairy Tale

Paco and the Giant Chile Plant

As we read each version we talked about how they were similar and how they were different. Each story had a giant plant, a giant who lived at the top of the plant, and some sort of magic seed.

On Friday we also planted our own “magic beans” in wet cotton ball “clouds”. We hung them in our window and will see what happens to them when we come back to school on Monday!