The Imagination Tree

Creative play and learning for kids

Jack and the Beanstalk Story Box

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We have made another story box for telling stories and to serve as  a little stage for puppet shows! This time the story that Cakie chose was one of her absolute favourite fairy tales, Jack and the Beanstalk.
Just as with our Little Red Riding Hood story box, we used an old show box and first of all cut the front section so that it folded out flat, creating a “stage.” She painted the edges blue to represent sky and the base green for grass.

She decided she needed LOTS of clouds to represent the castle being in the sky, and chose to use cotton wool balls independently. She asked me to cut out a castle for her, which she then painted with pink glitter paint over the top to make it look “all magical and lovely.”

She assembled some basic shapes that I cut from card and made them into Jack’s house, and again painted with the sparkly paint. Then she added plenty of sequins to make a “magical path” from the beanstalk to the castle. I love that little detail!

Once it was dry we found our gorgeous knitted finger puppet set that a lovely friend gave us. The set includes a knitted beanstalk, giant, Jack, Jack’s mother, old man and a golden goose. We have a few of these fairy tale sets and they are so adorable!

She has recently become very good at retelling stories, since we have been making and playing with these story boxes. She asked me to tell her the story with the puppets once and then she wanted to be the narrator, picking up each character in turn and giving them dialogue, narrating the storyline and making them interact.

Now we have two traditional tales ready to take off the shelf and retell with story props. She is already excited to make another one!

Have you ever made a story telling box? Which tale would you choose?

Learning Links:
  • literacy: retelling a story in the correct order, using story book language, taking on a role and remaining in character throughout play, remembering the key elements of a familiar story
  • creativity: using and combining a range of media, creating and describing textures

Comments

  1. Allison says

    I love this. What a fun way to include her in bringing the story to life. I think my little guys would enjoy doing this with one of their favorite books.

  2. Gina says

    Love the idea of creating story boxes go along with what you are reading at the time! Jack and the Beanstalk is adorable! I’ll have to try one out with my little guy for some retelling as well! Thanks for the inspiration!