In the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack races up a beanstalk to find some treasure that belongs to an enormous giant. Jack then seizes the treasure and races down the stalk to bring it to his mother. To incorporate this part of the plot to our pre-writing curriculum, we did a very special project called Jack’s Jewels. This helped us learn more about the letter J.

Young children need a variety of ways to learn about letters. Between the ages of two and four, your little one is just learning how to distinguish letters from shapes, identify the sounds they make, and are working on strengthening  the tiny muscles in their hands. Though we do worksheets at our school, these pre-writing activities are more engaging, and their content is more likely to be retained by your little one.

Using jewels, and mats marked with the letter J, we made the letter J for Jack! 

Each child did this by placing their jewels (a word starting with the letter J) on their Js. This activity improved your little ones’ fine motor skills, encouraged hand-eye coordination, and provided another opportunity to practice their pre-writing skills!