I need someone to tell me if they think my story prop idea will work...

[lucysmam]

We're currently reading "Jasper's Beanstalk" in class. We need props &, me liking a crafty challenge, I said I'll have a think how I can make a growing beanstalk from felt.

I'm thinking of making a felt plant pot (2 sides sewn together but top left open) with half a popper at the bottom, inside. Then a big-ish felt bean, with a hole at the top & a "beanstalk" sewn into it with a loop to pull it out of the bean so it grows and tucks back in. Then the other half a popper attached to the bean so it stays in place in the pot.

Do you think it might work? Or the poppers need to be...something...else? I've attached a diagram-ish but it's very hastily scribbled to show my friend what I was thinking.

I can do a cat easily enough & have a nice little spade at work that I've stashed for it. & I think I can manage a watering can and water drops 🤔

Actually, after thinking about it some more; I could make a smaller bean to drop into the pot, then stitch the beanstalk into the bottom of the pot with a loop to make it grow?

& there must be a toy watering can about the place somewhere 🤔

Quick bump in case anyone might have a better suggestion :)

Last bump before I go for it...

I don't see why it won't work. Velcro might be stronger the the popper - I wonder if that might pop open when the beanstalk is pulled.

Thanks @SoupDragon I'll see if I have some velcro in my stash.

I've just sat down to start cutting & realised I haven't brought the right colour felt for a plant pot anyway 🙄 , so I'll just cut the stalk for now until I get some the right colour tomorrow.

Plant pot can be any colour though? I would just do it.

@SpongeBobJudgeyPants dd1 has just said the exact same thing to me, while watching me cut the other bits. So I'm going to do it all with what I have.

I cba to get my sewing machine out tonight though, I don't think. We'll see!

Good. I do think schools who discourage dc 'doing blue elephants' etc discourage creativity. So good for you. I always encouraged DD to think outside the box on colour etc. She is now an art teacher.

Ha, I go with whatever colours are about at work. We had pink Sonic the other day 🤣

You're a lot more creative than me. When I last did it we had a green crepe paper stall and the children made it "grow" by writing stuff on leaves and we'd add it on. It was part of our writing continuous provision

We have a paper beanstalk going on outdoors, @Plural , that we'll carry on adding to next week as well.

We're planting beans tomorrow, so fingers crossed they grow fairly quickly & they can see the stalks "in action" 🤞

My plan worked - I've stitched the stalk into the bottom of the pot instead of a popper.

Pair of neon green tights and a load of scrubbed up newspaper.

Oooh that's brilliant @AuthorAccount I'll see what I can gather for one in our reading area! I was going to tackle that this coming week & try to update it a bit.

Years of trial and error! Tights staple to back-boards well and the stalk is light enough to stay up. I’ve also tried chicken wire and paper mache but that was a nightmare.

I've got a couple of thick-ish tubes I was going to try and fit together somehow, but think I'll hunt down some neon green tights & stick a message in the work whatsapp asking for newspaper instead.

Made a bean stalk by painting lots of carboard tubes and sticking on green paper leaves. threaded on string and threw the ball of string over the beams in classroom ceiling. (high Victorian/Edwardian style school)

Made a big palaver about dropping a packet of beans behind my desk on Friday evening. Hoiked the thing up ready for Monday morning. I did have to remove the "do not touch sprayed with weedkiller" notice the caretaker pegged to it though.

😂that's the kind of thing our old caretaker would have done. I did see a blog with a post where the creator made a "growing" beanstalk & used a simple pulley system to make it grow but our teacher looked at me a bit & I'm not tall enough to rig it up, so I left it 🤣

Oooh actually though OP, all you need for that is strong string at the end of a really long stuffed pair of tights and thread the string through those ceiling hooks you get for outside Christmas lights all along the edge of the wall then yank it all up as they watch. It would be ace.

Oooooh, I wonder if anywhere in town has green tights 🤔 I could do that myself without much reaching going on! I'll keep my eyes open for some if I go at the weekend