What you will need:
green paint, paint brush or painting sponge, inside of a paper towel roll, box cutter, 10 popsicle sticks, 7-10 cotton balls, pvc glue, black marker, small piece of tape, 2 inch piece of straw
Let’s get started:
I began by gathering my materials and painting my paper towel roll green. I just gave it one nice coat but you can do 2 if you like. I also painted my popsicle sticks green at this time.
While I was waiting for those to dry I went online and did a quick Google search for a free “green leaves” printable. I printed 10 medium sized leaves on A4 sized paper. I also printed a medium sized free castle printable and laminated it. You could also laminate the leaves, but I chose to skip this step.
After my paper towel roll was dry I cut 10 small incisions into it with my boxcutter. I staggered my cuts so that it would give the appearance of climbing from leaf to leaf and made each cut just large enough to easily stick one end of the popsicle stick through.
I then used a black marker to number my leaves 1-10 and used glue to secure my numbered leaves onto the end of the popsicle sticks.
I began pulling apart my cottonballs to add some fluff and glued them to the top of my paper towel roll, giving the appearance of clouds.
I then taped my laminated castle to a 2 inch peice of straw. This helped to secure it in place as I stuck this through the middle of my cotton clouds.
I used my black marker to write the numbers 1-10 near each of the cuts and inserted the matching numbered leaves.
Development Matters:
Children utilize their fine motor skills in the hand and wrist as they insert the numbered leaves into the correctly numbered space. They develop their math skills through counting and number recognition. They utilize their imaginations through pretend play with their Magic Beanstalk. (:
Alterations for younger children:
Leave the numbered leaves secured in place and give the child a toy figure to pretend jack is climbing the Beanstalk as he jumps from leaf to leaf, counting with them as he climbs.
Alterations for older children:
Write the number in letters on each leaf so the child has to match the number to the written word for that number.
Additional uses:
Add this magic bean stalk to a sensory bin filled with beans and pasta.
Preschool Pretenders 