Jack And The Beanstalk

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.