Story Stones
Story stones are an easy, cheap, and highly engaging way to tell a story with children
What are Story Stones?
Story stones are visuals for children to use in story telling. Story stones are typically flat and smooth can be made using:
Printed images on paper
Stickers
Paint or Markers or Paint Markers
and then use a sealer like Modge Podge to keep your stones safe for the inevitable wear and tear they will encounter
Story stones can have a variety of images: actual children’s faces, favorite story book characters, animals, objects, places, weather, whatever you are currently teaching, or literally anything!
Children can make their own story stones too!
How to use Story Stones:
Story stones can be used:
By an adult as visual cues for children during verbal story telling to help students learn story sequence
By children to actively participate in the story telling by sharing their stone during the appropriate time in the story being told by an adult
By adults or children to use to tell or write their own creative story -(story starters)
By adults or children to use in the retelling of a familiar story (young children using stones to retell a story helps build literacy!)
5. In small groups to foster cooperative story telling and communication skills
Why are Story Stones an amazing learning tool?
Art- let your children help you make story stones
Creativity- children can use their creativity and imagination in creating their own stories using story stones
Writing- story stones make perfect writing prompts (choose a handful of story stones to have the children incorporate into their story)
Literacy- children can use story stones from a familiar story like The Three Little Pigs to practice retelling a story
Social Emotional- look below to see how to make Emotion Stones!
Emotion Stones
Emotion stones are a wonderful tool to introduce into your classroom.
As younger children are learning how to express themselves, these stones help them to identify emotions in themselves and others. Have a designated space in your classroom for the emotions stones and let children use them to help express how they are feeling. Be sure to discuss what each emotion on the stone is, so children will be able to identify the emotion.
How to Introduce Emotion Stones
Use Emotion Stones in a story!
We created a story about a fish starting virtual school in 2020 for you to use with your children. Please feel free to download this PDF and use with your kiddos! (Be sure to subscribe to get access to the PDFs!)
As you read the story aloud the first time, hold the correct emotion stone up for the children to see when the emotion is explained in the story. The second time you read it, randomly pass out the stones to the children and have them hold up the stone (and make the face on the stone!) when that emotion is read. Afterwards for fun, hold up different emotion rocks and have the children practice those faces. Then practice again, but this time verbally speaking the emotion, without showing the stone.
