Story stones are a favorite in our home! I’ve perfected a simple way to make them, so we have a TON of them laying around the house. We use them in many different ways but I have to say this is a new favorite. It’s extremely simple to recreate and there are endless options with this activity!
Story stones are a popular tool for learning and playing! They’re simple to make and add an element of fun to any home or classroom.
We’ve had this set of story stones for almost three years now! We use them often and particularly enjoy using them to retell our outdoor adventures.
We usually just set them out on a bare table or use our sequential story mat to help us with the order of events in our hike. This works great, but I wanted to add a bit of background to aid in the storytelling or spark creative storytelling. So I got out my roll of paper and markers and quickly looked up some landscape backgrounds on Pinterest for some inspiration.
What’s the best part about these backgrounds?! You can draw WHATEVER background you would like! Ocean, campsite, forest, or recreate your backyard…. the options are endless with this one!
Supplies
- Story Stones- You can learn how we made our story stones here
- Markers– I LOVE these flip chart markers! You get 2 packs with this link
- Paper– We use Melissa and Doug easel paper
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Here’s What We Did:
Step 1:
Decide what type of background you want to draw. I’m no artist, so I kept it simple and drew a few trees, hill, and a stream. You can’t see the hill in this photo, but its to the right of the campsite.
I thought it would also be fun to let my boys draw the scene the next time! This would also give them more ownership in their learning and storytelling.
Step 2:
Set out the story stones next to the scene. I didn’t tell my boys about the activity. They eventually saw it laying on our chest and they naturally started adding to the scene and making up stories of their own.
Here are a few scenes and stories they make up:
The boys set up a cute camp scene complete with a tent, fire, and kids roasting s’mores.
They also made up a whole story about these kids hiking up the hill. In case you are wondering, the boy twisted his ankle at the bottom of the hill so the girl had to carry all of the supplies in her backpack;)
I love this little scene they set up by the tree! They talked about the mama bird and babies in the eggs. It was fun to see what they know about the bird lifecycle.
You might have noticed we have a few wood pieces instead of stones. These are a great alternative if you don’t like the idea of stones in your home or classroom.
They played with this scene for a full week! I kept it out and they returned to it over and over again. They made up silly, serious, and factual stories that showed what they know about certain topics. It was fun to observe and I’m excited to see them create their own background the next time we try this activity!
Please Pin this activity if you love it!
I hope you give this simple activity a try! I promise, your little nature lovers will love it as much as my boys.
∼Tara
Need more story stone ideas?! Check out:
Four Ways to Use Story Stones in the Classroom
How We Used Story Stones on Earth Day
Not Your Average Nursery Rhymes
