DLTK's Fairy Tale Activities
Jack and the Beanstalk
Old English Fairy Tale - version written and illustrated
Once upon a time, there
lived a widow woman and
her son, Jack, on their small
farm in the country.
Every day, Jack would help
his mother with the chores -
chopping the wood, weeding
the garden and milking the
cow. But despite all their
hard work, Jack and his
mother were very poor with
barely enough money to
keep themselves fed.
"What shall we do, what
shall we do?" said the
widow, one spring day. "We
don't have enough money to
buy seed for the farm this
year! We must sell our cow,
Old Bess, and with the
money buy enough seed to
plant a good crop."
"All right, mother," said Jack, "it's market-day today. I'll go into town and sell Bessy."
So Jack took the cow's halter in his hand, walked through the garden gate and headed off
toward town. He hadn't gone far when he met a funny-looking, old man who said to him,
"Good morning, Jack."
"Good morning to you," said Jack, wondering how the little, old man knew his name.
"Where are you off to this fine morning?" asked the man.
"I'm going to market to sell our cow, Bessy."
"Well what a helpful son you are!" exclaimed the man, "I have a special deal for such a good
boy like you."
The little, old man looked around to make sure no one was watching and then opened his
hand to show Jack what he held.
"Beans?" asked Jack, looking a little confused.
"Three magical bean seeds to be exact, young man. One, two, three! So magical are they,
that if you plant them over-night, by morning they grow right up to the sky," promised the
it didn't take long for him to chop through enough of the beanstalk that it began to teeter.
The giant felt the beanstalk shake and quiver so he stopped to see what was the matter.
Then Jack gave one last big chop with the axe, and the beanstalk began to topple over. Then
the giant fell down and broke his crown, and the beanstalk came toppling after.
The singing harp thanked Jack for rescuing her from the giant - she had hated being locked
up in the closet all day and night and wanted nothing more than to sit in the farmhouse
window and sing to the birds and the butterflies in the sunshine.
With a bit of patience and his mother's help, it didn't take long for Jack to get the sickly hen
back in good health and the grateful hen continued to lay a fresh golden egg every day.
Jack used the money from selling the golden eggs to buy back Old Bess, purchase seed for
the spring crop and to fix up his mother's farm. He even had enough left over to invite
every one of his neighbours over for a nice meal, complete with music from the singing
harp.
And so Jack, his mother, Old Bess, the golden harp and the white hen lived happy ever after.
