Jack and the Beanstalk is a well known fantasy or can even be considered a fairy tale. In this story a boy named Jack and his mother loose all their income and have to sell their cow for food. Jack takes the cow to town to sell but on his way meets an old man that offers him five magic beans for the cow. Jack takes it and his mom when he returns his furious and throws the beans out the window. When Jack wakes up the next morning there is a beanstalk that reaches past the sky. He climbs the beanstalk and reaches a giant castle. The wife of the giant lets him in without the knowledge of the giant and when the giant goes to sleep the first time he steals gold coins. Eventually Jack runs out of coins so he returns up the beanstalk. He goes up the beanstalk again and the wife welcomes him in again because he discusses himself. When the giant goes to sleep he steals a chicken that lays golden eggs. Jack longed for an adventure so he went up the beanstalk one more time. He steals a golden magical harp but this time is discovered by the giant. As the giant chases him he rushes down the beanstalk and when he gets home he chops the beanstalk down along with the giant. Jack and the mother live happily ever after.

I like this book just because it uses the imagination. Although you know that this can never happen it makes you think. It also shows that although you may be having hard times something can always come your way to change that. The pictures in this book go along with this story very well and it would be easy for a child to understand.

One extension idea that you could do to go with this book is to have child the children make a beanstalk or another object out of construction paper from the book. You could have the children use their imagination and built their own item from the story. Another extension idea is to have the children put the story in sequences. For example have them tell you what happened first, second and then third and so on. One more extension idea is to have your students plant their own bean and see what happens and then talk about the process of growing something.