DIY Story Stones Inspired by Books for Toddlers and Preschoolers
We love retelling stories and have found that story stones are a great way to this as we can quickly create them and use them to retell a popular story we have read together or use them to be inspired to make up our own stories. The retelling of the stories with these stones based on books we have read together is a great way to support early comprehension and understanding of the books that you are sharing together. So here we go all these story stones are based on children’s books that are ideal to read aloud together with toddlers and preschoolers.
Top Tips for Creating the Story Stones
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- Use flat rocks that provide a good surface area to use – river rocks which are grey are ideal and you can easily find them on a beach or places like Amazon, or your local garden or landscaping store will usually supply them. Make sure they are unpolished
- When painting the rocks use Acrylic Paints – although ready mixed washable paints will produce a colour they aren’t as vibrant as acrylic and have a tendency to wash off. Alternatively, you can use chalk markers like Uni-Posca or Chalkola to create your designs.
- If you use clipart or pictures to create your story stones then to make sure you get a great edge cut the images out with a craft knife on a self-healing cutting mat and then attach using school glue.
- Once your story characters and are location are on the stones and dry to preserve them it’s a good idea to seal them – you can use a clear sealer like an Aerosol Spray or Modge Podge Liquid.
- I like to store story stones we have in a drawstring bag – and add the title of the book they are for with either felt letters or paint them on with fabric pens.
Book Based Story Stones Ideas for Retelling Stories
Classic Tales
On of my favourite classic tales to read aloud with children is the Three Little Pigs, we read the Ladybird version of this tale from when the children were very young.
Over on Views from a Step Stool they have a fantastic set of Three Little Pigs Story Stones which are easy to make and would be great for retelling the story.
Another classic tale for children – The Gingerbread Man is given the story stone treatment allowing you and the children to retell the story, the order of the animals and more.
Find the full instructions on how to create these easy Gingerbread Man Story Props over on The Gingerbread House.
Christmas Themed Stones
The Nativity Story Stones help you and your child to connect with the original Christmas Story as you use them to retell the sequence of events.
Find the full step-by-step tutorial for creating these Nativity Story Props here on Rainy Day Mum.
The Jolly Christmas Postman is a popular children’s storybook in the UK following on from The Jolly Postman in 2017 we featured this book as one of our Storybook Advent Stories here on Rainy Day Mum. See how to make these easy Jolly Christmas Postman Story Stones to help retell the story – featuring many classic children’s picture book characters you could use these to spur additional storytelling with your children too.
Another Winter favourite of our’s is The Mitten by Jan Brett we love this story and these Story Stones for The Mitten over on Fun-a-Day are so Easy to make.
Story Stones for Julia Donaldson Books
One of our favourite Kids Authors is Julia Donaldson and we LOVE these ideas for story stones based on some of her storybooks.
The Highway Rat. These Highway Rat Story Rocks by The Gingerbread House are easy to make using images from the book and you really don’t need any drawing skills at all.
Popular Picture Book Inspired Story Stones
There are so many other popular books we’ve found some Story Stone and Rock ideas to go along with these favourites of our kids.
We discovered Pete the Cat a few years ago as part of the Virtual Book Club for Kids and love reading I love my White Shoes and other stories. These Pete the Cat Story Stones by Piper Loves the Library, I love that you can get the kids to colour in these with you once you have made the outlines.
The story I most loved reading aloud to T as a toddler was We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. As soon as she could speak she would read parts along with me. These We’re Going on a Bear Hunt Story Stones by Learning and Exploring Through Play are fabulous. I love how they have just made the environments that you go through as you go through the story and even all these years later I can still recall the sounds that I would make.
Before my kids were even born I bought them each a copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar these Very Hungry Caterpillar from The Purple Pumpkin Patch are easy to make and great for storytelling (I would be tempted to add numbers to the caterpillar to practice counting as your caterpillar grows and grows as it eats more of the food!)
Why Not Pin these Ideas for Story Stones as we will be adding to this page regularly