EYFS Activities - We’ve explored… giants

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Once upon a time, a Giant left behind a big footprint in a school classroom and inspired the Reception children to embark on weeks of wonder, investigation and writing.

Children at Redriff Primary School in Rotherhithe, south-east London, had enjoyed watching a pantomime of Jack and the Beanstalk and were intrigued by the Giant who was heard but never seen on stage. They started to imagine what he may have looked like and were surprised to find that he had visited their classroom in the night and left behind his footprint and a note saying, ‘Fee-fi-fo-fum! There’s lots of measuring to be done!’

LARGE AND SMALL

The children rose to the challenge and found lots of ways to measure the footprint, including using lengths of string, rulers, Unifix cubes and loose parts. Some also drew around their own feet on paper, cut out their footprints, compared them to the Giant’s and counted how many of their footprints would fit inside his.

Later that day a girl approached Reception teacher Mikaela Yates with two small footprints that she’d found behind the desk. ‘Oh, my goodness, who do you think they belong to?’ asked Ms Yates. Maybe they belonged to the baby giant, the girl replied, then whispered in her teacher’s ear, ‘They’re actually mine, but let’s pretend’.

LET’S WRITE A LETTER

Soon she had made her friends very curious and excited about the mysterious footprints. They examined the footprints and decided they should write a letter to the Giant asking him if the strange footprints belonged to his baby.

‘We had planned a maths focus on measurement but, by following the children’s interests, it naturally changed into a writing focus, which continued for many weeks, probably because it involved fantasy, which the children really love,’ says Ms Yates.

‘Together the four girls decided to take turns to write a word each and helped each other to stretch out each word so that they could form all of the sounds to write “Is this your baby’s footprint?”.’

While they were writing the letter, the girl who had ‘found’ the smaller footprints ran to the creative area and came back with a glue stick to attach them to the letter. They then rolled up the message like a scroll and left it hanging from the board for the Giant to find if he returned.

STRANGE NEW FOOTPRINTS

The children arrived at school the next morning to find they had received a response from the Giant, which created more excitement and more of the class became involved in the intrigue.

‘He said that he’d seen their letter when he was back to eat our playdough overnight,’ says Ms Yates. ‘He then showed us what his baby’s footprint looked like and said he had no idea who the mysterious footprints belonged to. He then attached another new footprint to his letter and said that since we were so interested in footprints, we should try to guess what kind of animal his pet was.’

A group of children, mainly boys, were interested to look at the strange new footprint and, over a few days, used books and the internet to research what it may be and compare it to other animal footprints. They were fascinated by the shape and that it didn’t have any toes.

One boy came close by questioning whether the Giant’s pet was a cow. In fact, it was a reindeer hoof print, but Ms Yates says the majority of children were more consumed by what the Giant had been doing in their classroom. Some were indignant that the Giant had dared to eat their playdough – something they take great care and pride in making themselves daily.

RIGHT OR WRONG?

Ms Yates, inspired by work she has done on philosophising with children, discussed with them whether it was right or wrong for a Giant to come into their classroom and eat the playdough.

‘Some children said that it’s not OK because it is stealing, while others thought that it was not a problem because we make playdough every day,’ she says.

Following the debate, the children decided to have a hands-up vote, which they had previously done to make whole-class decisions, with the majority of children voting that it was wrong for the Giant to have eaten their playdough.

X MEANS DON’T GO THERE

After their vote, children set to work making signs telling the Giant not to eat their playdough. One boy drew lots of big Xs on pieces of paper to stick around the area with the playdough, explaining to the other children that ‘X means you don’t go there’. But instead of the Giant leaving their playdough alone, he returned that night and ate all of it, apart from a few crumbs, and left a letter behind thanking the children for their playdough and the lovely kisses.

‘They found this really funny and it led to them to write more letters explaining that the crosses were intended to mean that he should not eat the playdough. It was great because the children were so animated and excited,’ says Ms Yates.

A HUGE APOLOGY

The next morning the children arrived in their classroom to find five brightly coloured balls of playdough left as an apology from the Giant along with a letter saying sorry. They were really happy with the new playdough and some children wrote thank you letters in response, while others wrote asking for more playdough.

‘The children were inspired by the events to engage in lots of writing with purpose along with enjoying the fantasy and using their imaginations. They seemed very excited every morning they received a new letter from the Giant,’ Ms Yates says.

‘The children’s investigations tied in to many areas of the curriculum from numeracy and literacy to understanding the world. All the class came together, they shared in the excitement and anticipation and told their friends in other classes what the Giant was doing.’

Book corner

Jack and the Beanstalk: Ladybird First Favourite Tales

by Iona Treahya

Based on the traditional fairytale, this version contains lots of funny rhythm and rhyme.

Jim and the Beanstalk

by Raymond Briggs

In this humorous continuation of the original story of Jack and the Beanstalk, the giant is now an old man with a new adversary called Jim.

Trust Me, Jack’s Beanstalk Stinks!

by Eric Braun

Of course, everyone thinks that the Giant was the guy terrifying poor little Jack. But this is the story of Jack and the Beanstalk as told by the giant.

Kate and the Beanstalk

by Mary Pope Osborne

This retelling of the popular tale puts a female in the main role. Gutsy Kate goes on to outsmart the greedy giant.

by Nick Butterworth

Jasper plants a bean and waits for it to grow into a beanstalk. How long will he have to wait before he can start looking for giants?

Tracks in the Snow

by Wong Herbert Yee

A little girl follows mysterious tracks outside her window after a snowfall. She sees lots of animal tracks as she follows the trail to work out who made the prints, which eventually lead her back home.

Jack and the Baked Beanstalk

Colin Stimpson

Jack and his mum run a little burger café. When Jack buys a can of baked beans with their last pennies, his mother throws it out of the window – starting a gigantic baked beanstalk adventure!

Who Hides Here?: Footprints in the Garden

by Rachel Coverdale

Clues accompanying the beautifully illustrated animal footprints are written in a sing-song rhythm and rhyme.

RSPB Nature Tracker’s Handbook

by Nick Baker

Lots of pictures and diagrams to help people learn the art of tracking.