Today my Transitional Kindergarten drew Jack's Beanstalks. (and took home a handful of beans they hope Mom throws out the window in disgust tonight-we decided the mom being real mad was very important)
They have heard several versions of the story, including mine, seen Shelley Duvall's Fairytale Theater version which is a treasure. I glued beans for them onto long, long papers so the glue would dry the night before and then I got out of their way. I could literally SEE what they comprehended from this engaging fairy tale. Listening to the children narrate their work as they drew was far better than anything i could ask. There you heard what a five year old understands about this story.
She focuses on the form of vines, exclusively for her, it is about how beans grow. With "spirals."
I will so miss her artwork.
This child was silent, is largely silent. I mean SILENT. Without this drawing, how would I know what he took away from this story. Do you see the axe used to cut that beanstalk down? See giant and cloud? I sure do.
This child kept saying to me look, and then look and then look as he added ideas.
Teacher look, look teacher, look.
"I made my beanstalk fat so it would not fall over."
A late arrival to my room, with no English, he understood this tale pretty clearly.
Her table bore the brunt of this beanstalk, but after a good washing, we have two characters.
Starting literally ten minutes after everyone else when I next saw him after a few get going prompts this was what he had for me.
Quite a giant, she said to her friend she scared herself.
Oh if only you were here, I can't capture all the friendly happy chatter about that "pink beanstalk and the giant hidden in it, it is a very bad giant going to climb down, and we've got to cut, cut, cut it down."
He drew. But he wanted to quit. He even included Jack's own house, a truly important part of the story.
This child put the beans up in the clouds-causing quite the stir during the "art show." There is nothing quite so harsh as a children's critique. However a consensus seemed to be "he got messed up." To which our artist firmly stated, "I WANTED it that way."
He's a purist, just the beanstalk.
This was what I did. I did not keep it up, I just showed it for a second and then "lost" it so they would see whatever they wanted.
Although I thought this looked like a cactus, he told the story to me, but said the giant was the real victim.
This child narrated his story putting Jack on the paper over and over because time is passing within the work. So, for me, he's closest to performance art. (this is also meta-cognitive as the artist is Jack talking about Jack.)
I love the freedom of this one, she was silent, but was the listener all her table wanted to impress.
That's a real art. A listener.
You cannot have favorites, but this artwork was my favorite. He told me that the beanstalk was very tangled up.
In this child's story the giant made it to the bottom.
Oh no.
I do not see Jack.....
This child had the classroom aide do his.
While he told her what he saw.
There is usually one of these running every Fortune 500 company.
The Heartstalk.
She stated, "I'm going to take the most time in this room"-and she took an hour telling it all, her neighbor got caught up in the story and drew borrowing her style-she drew "backgrounds",
I thought this was the most abstract Jack and the Beanstalk pic I've seen. And, quite frankly, amazing for 5 years old.
So many ideas come to me from this. Tomorrow they are learning a song being being written as we speak. To a jazz-Ellington like riff. Yeah...teacher has a few gears.
Here's the lyrics....
:: I’m gonna tell you a story
It’s a story bout Jack
He got sent to the market
And almost didn’t come back
His mom gave him cows
to the market to sell
and when he got back
he had a story to tell
On his way to the market
Jack ran into a man
The man had some beans
and the man had a plan
he tricked poor Jack
in a cows for beans trade
And that’s when the magic
of the story was made
:: I’m gonna tell you a story
Its a story bout Jack
He got sent to the market
And almost didn’t come back
Now Jack went right home
and took the beans to his mom
When she heard what she did
She was not very calm
She said Oh now Jack
What foolish thing did you do
And she took those beans
and out the windows she threw
Now Jack was real sad
he let his good mother down
But the beans starting growing
Really high from the ground
It grew and it grew
and it grew to the sky
And Jack he went climbing
He went climbing so high
When he got to the top
he took a good look around
And to his amazement
It was a castle he found
Inside the castle he was lucky to find
A goose laying golden eggs
The most precious kind
A magical harp
Well she sang out her song
To warn the mad giant
And then Jack he was gone
Jack grabbed the goose
and down the stalk he did go
The Giant chased right after
but he fell down below
Well the giant was dead
And young Jack he was glad
Was the greatest adventure
That young Jack ever had
Then the goose laid her eggs
and young Jack had his gold
and that is the story of Jack
how its told
and Jack and his mom
well they both had the gold
This is just the wonder of teaching.
as a creative being, I'll try to add in here the song being sung.
It's incredible. Gosh I love this TK.
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