Story stones are very quick and simple to make and the beauty is that you can make them for any favourite book. As we plan to visit Howletts Zoo this coming weekend I decided to keep on the animal theme, and chose the book Walking through the Jungle by Julie Lacome. If you haven’t come across it before its a simple book that follows a small boy discovering different jungle animals and the noises they make. It really is a lovely book as it has bright illustrations which Monkey has always loved as well as a wonderful rhyming story. Its a great addition for children who are learning their animal noises.
To make these stones or similar you will need:
- Pebbles or stones – Last time we were at the beach I picked up some pebbles specifically looking for ones which were reasonably smooth, flat and oval in shape. Its actually harder than you imagine!
- PVA glue or Mod Podge
- Scissors
- Old paint brush
- Pictures of your characters, for older children you could paint pictures onto the stones, for Monkeys age and my artistic ability pictures from the book definitely worked better
I wanted the pictures to match those in the story so I scanned the pages of the book onto the computer and saved them as photos. I then cropped them to show only the animal faces, before transferring them into a word document to print. This also meant that I could reduce the size of them down to match the size of the pebbles.
After cutting them out Monkey matched them to the pebbles – he was very particular about using one of the smallest stones I had picked up….
Monkey put glue under the picture and then all over the top of the picture so that it keeps the edges down. It also acts like a varnish and makes the stones even more tactile. Its a bit fiddly and you do end up getting covered in glue but thats part of the fun from a three year olds perspective.
Here are ours waiting to dry:
Once dry we read the book with the Story Stones so that Monkey could match the characters.
I am hoping that it will help with his story telling, as he’s not at the reading stage but will be able to make the animal noises and tell the story in his own words with the stones. Its a great way to bring a book alive. Also we can incorporate these stones into other stories, either with other stones we have made for other books. Or stones we have made specifically as story telling props such as a castle, mountain, crown etc.. the list is endless!
Mudpie xx
24 Responses
What a cute way to make story stones
You have so many great ideas! Thanks for sharing x
Aw thanks and for stopping by x
Aw thank you lovely and for stopping by x
Thank you for linking up to #Imaginationmatters again. I love this idea – the only problem would be that Sprog’s favourite book changes every few days, he’s a bit of a book worm! I think we’ll give story stones a go some time soon though! Hopefully we’ll see you this week too, the theme is “In The Sky”!
What a fantastic idea- love it. Will be making some for my kindergarten classes. Thanks for sharing the idea!
#twinklytuesday
Great way to create story stones. I hope you had a fab time at the zoo x thanks for linking to #toddlerapprovedtuesday x
Heeee heee you are so close to the beach you could fill your back garden with lots of them! Lol 🙂 thank you for hosting will try to think of something …. Xx
Aww how cute are these! Little artists in the making! thanks for sharing such a great idea! Suz x Beauisblue.com
Love this idea – never thought of using pictures from the book to create story stones. The stones look great and such a brilliant way of helping children tell the story. Thank you for sharing.
what a great idea!! I should really do more creative things with my kids!!
Aw great 🙂 glad you liked them, thanks for stopping by x
Thank you and thank you got hosting 🙂 x
Aw thank you and for stopping by x
Aw thank you and thank you for stopping by xx
Thank you 🙂 and thanks for stopping by x
That’s a really good idea! I think my boy will enjoy gluing the pictures onto the stones. I think we will start off with dinosaurs as that what he likes. Thank you for the idea! Fab! 🙂 x #KidsCorner
Aw great 🙂 hope you have loads of fun xx
This is such a lovely idea every week you impress me with your posts! thanks so much for sharing them with us on #kidscorner x
What a great way to make reading interactive with pre-literate kids! Thanks for linking with #TwinklyTuesday.
This is fab! Love that story, we use cuddlies to retell it. Thanks for sharing in #KidsCorner x
Aw thanks love and thank you for hosting xx
Aww Monkey calls them cuddles as well – we don’t though so no idea where he got that from! Thanks for hosting 🙂