A cool northern breeze blew in this weekend and it had me reaching for soup recipes. After a yummy bowl of our favorite soup, we snuggled up with our collection of Stone Soup stories.

We have several versions of this book because it is one of my favorites. I love the sneaky way the visitors get the stingy town members to work together. The clever plan, the absurd idea, and the ultimate results are fantastic in every way.

Grab a couple versions of this book (our favorites are below) and then dive into a couple of fun activities with this Stone Soup Story Time.

Stone Soup Story Time

Our story times always have the same parts; We start with a hello song. Next, I read 2-3 books about a topic with a rhyme/song and group activity that works on a developmental goal in between each book. We end with a goodbye song and then head to the table. At the table there is an invitation of some sort that works on another one of the developmental skills they are building. These elements are all listed below so you can move them around into whatever order works for you!

Read: Stone Soup Book List

Stone Soup by Tony Bonning

This is the traditional tale of stone soup but with animals for the characters. The text is brief and it serves as an excellent read aloud introduction to the story of Stone Soup. Find on Amazon

Stone Soup by Jon J Muth

The gorgeous illustrations and gentle spirit of this story make it my favorite retelling of the classic Stone Soup. This edition is similar to the original but just different enough that it opens the door for some conversation about similarities and differences. Find on Amazon

More Delightful Children’s Books about Soup from The Jenny Evolution

Stone Soup Song

Sing The Stone Soup song (to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell). You can print off the words from Mrs. Albanese’s Kindergarten.

Group Activity: Sight Word Stone Soup

I did this activity with 5 year olds who are starting to learn words. If you are doing this with younger kids, you could easily adapt this to be an Alphabet Soup Game where you search for upper and lowercase letters instead of building words.

Materials

A pot

Pretend Food (This set of vegetables is perfect)

Wooden Spoon

A Stone (or Rock)

Letters (We use this Montessori Movable Alphabet)

Index Cards or Construction Paper

Black Marker

Set Up

First, prepare you index cards with words or letters (depending on what you’re working on). I wrote out one sight word that my kids are familiar per index card. (Our sight words right now are: their names, Mom, Dad, Like, I, Me, The, To, Love).

Second, write other directions on separate index cards to make your soup. These are the rest of your ingredients. For instance, our cards had pictures of potatoes, a rock, and other veggies to add to the soup.

Place the pretend vegetables and letters to build your sight words (or just the letters you are working on) in a basket.

How to Play

Put the pot in the middle and explain that you are going to make your own stone soup together!

Ask what they think the very first ingredient is for Stone Soup. Hopefully they will remember that the first thing in the pot was a stone, but if not, flip through the beginning of your story to find out together.

Drop the stone into the soup and ask if they think it’s ready to eat. (NOOO! should be the answer).

Explain that they are going to help add the rest of the ingredients. Pass out your index cards so that every child gets at least 1. For a smaller group, give each child 2 or 3 and try to make sure that each child gets a vegetable and a word card.

One at a time have the kids come up, “read” their card, and then add their ingredient to the pot. When their “ingredient” is a sight word, have them look in the basket to find the letters to build their word. Build the word next to the card and then add the whole word to the soup.

When you are all done you could give everyone a chance to stir the pot with the spoon and sniff to see if the soup smells good. If they are enjoying the pretend, you could serve the soup up in bowls and pretend to eat it. You could also put the “soup” in your pretend area for further play after story time.

Stone Soup Table Invitation Ideas

1. Alphabet Soup Sensory Bin from Playdough and Popsicles

2. Cook Soup Together with this Cream of Broccoli Soup recipe from Tales of Education at Home OR these Soups for Winter Fun from Frog Mom

3. Soup Can Money Worksheet (FREE printable) from Schooling a Monkey

Subscribe Below to Get More Weekly Story Time Ideas!