We’ve done a lot of rock arts and crafts in our home, but we have yet to make story stones. It’s on our activity list for this afternoon, though, and I can’t wait!
In preparation, I’ve collected a few resources and posts with story stones ideas…
There are so many ways to make story stones!
I’ve seen story stones made with a variety of materials, including:
- acrylic paint
- fabric collage
- magazine collage
- Sharpie oil-based paint pens
- Sharpie permanent markers.
(I haven’t decided which way to do it ourselves yet. Probably acrylic paint. But really, I want to try them all.)
And the sky’s the limit in terms of the items you depict on your stones. Or how you use your story stones to tell a story.
5 Story Stones Ideas
Story Telling Stones (on Emily Neuburger)
Emily Neuburger is also the author of the popular book, Show me a Story: 40 Craft Projects and Activities to Spark Children’s Storytelling, which is wonderful.
How to Paint and Play with Story Stones
(Note: This was on Paint on the Ceiling, which is no longer available. But as you can see from the photo above, you can draw or paint simple images on each rock to represent various story elements.)
Combine Simple Story Stones with Sidewalk Chalk Scenes (on Inner Child Fun)
Make Your Own Story Stones with Magazine Collage (on Mommy Labs)
Mix and Match Rock Faces (on Teach Beside Me). These last ones aren’t technically story stones, but could easily be used for storytelling and for talking about feelings and expressions.
If you’re looking for ideas on how to use your story stones, check out these story stone task cards, written for use in a classroom, but great for home as well.
By the way, if you like the idea of story stones, but don’t want to make your own, there are some amazing ones available on Etsy. I especially like these fairy tale story stones by Thrive 360 Living (she has made lots of wonderful sets!) but you can also just search for “story stones.”
Have you made story stones? What technique did you use?
And if you like rocks as much as we do, you might also enjoy our other Artful Parent rock-related posts:
- Art with Rocks: 18 Ways to Use Rocks in Kids Art
- Making Learning Fun (With Rocks!)
- 10 DIY Outdoor Games To Make With Rocks
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10 Comments
Susan Dieter-Robinson
May 15, 2014 at 10:48 amThis is how our community is using rocks…we are making them into Love Rocks and spreading Love in Joy.
http://love-drenched-life.com/love-rocks/
Angela @CreatifulKids
May 15, 2014 at 11:13 amOh..I really need to get some stones!
Sam @ Thrive 360 Living
May 15, 2014 at 11:14 amWhat a great round up of story stones ideas! The possibilities are really endless. And thank you for including my fairytale painted stones :).
Tara
May 21, 2014 at 7:12 amWhere do you find the black rocks? We live in So California and I can’t say I’ve ever seen any in these parts…
Denise Heinle
January 25, 2018 at 8:44 amDollar stores have them.. but you have to boil them or soak them in hot water and soap and take the polish off of them to make the paint work. They are really cheap. If you have access to white.. base coat them in black .
anon m
May 23, 2014 at 9:06 pmNot the same as picturesd above, but you can get a mesh bag of smooth black rocks from the dollarstore.
Jennifer
November 13, 2014 at 12:04 amI made a set painted as the planets and sun in our solar system :).
Caroline
January 12, 2015 at 7:53 amWe collected stones and painted them but I only had water based paints-tempera I think. The colours aren’t vivid enough. We loved it though so will be doing more prob with sharpies. The painting was difficult for my 5 & 2 yr olds. More likely to get recognisable pictures for play with pens I think
Susan
February 20, 2015 at 4:03 amI followed you here from Tinkerlab and realized that it was your book the Artful Parent that I recently purchased. In fact I purchased three copies! I am a preschool art teacher and a Gramma and find your book inspirational and helpful, Of course, now I’m following you: I don’t want to miss a thing!!
Thanks for a ll the great ideas,
Susan
karen lowrie
February 22, 2015 at 5:06 ami originally got the idea for story stones from Happy Hooligans, i collected some stones and decided to draw pictures onto sticky labels, drew and colored the pictures and stuck them onto the stones them covered with some varnish. i made the stones about 3 years ago and apart from a couple of broken ones they are still looking good, the children at playgroup love them, thank you so much for the idea. Karen