Countdown to summer. Having a hard time keeping them interested? Make some Stone Soup! We have included book activities to go-along below.

Stone Soup is a fun read-aloud by Marcia Brown found on many homeschool reading lists. The book won the Caldecott Honor Medal.

Tired and hungry soldiers are heading to a small village.  The peasants who live in the village know the soldiers will be hungry and are afraid to share their food for fear they themselves will go hungry.  So they hide their food.  When the soldiers ask for help, they are given good reasons why the villagers cannot share.  The soldiers realize they will have to outwit the villagers.  In the end, the entire village shares in a feast!

Preschoolers will love the repetitiveness and predictability of this remake of an old French tale.  Mothers will appreciate the lesson in hospitality.  And all young folks will enjoy making their own version of stone soup!

Suggestions

• Retell the story in your own words.
• Write down a list of the ingredients that go into the soup.
• Narrate or write down in order the way to make stone soup.
• Make your own stone soup using the recipe you have just created.
• Older students can assess the final nutritional content of the soup.
• The villagers thanked the soldiers for all that they had taught them. What lessons do you think they learned?
• Create an author’s page in your literature notebook for Marcia Brown.
• Create a page in your Caldecott winners notebook.
• There are many different versions of the tale. Compare/contrast the version of stone soup by Marcia Brown with this version at DLTK-Teach or another version of your choice (see below).

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Additional Resources

6 Ways to Get the Most From Literature-Based Studies
Other ideas for interacting with the story.

10 Ways to Use Notebooking: #3 Literature
Notebooking ideas.

Activity: Compare & Contrast
Resources for comparing different versions of the tale.

Activities

Bring-Your-Own Stone Soup
Craft from Crayola.

Soup Pot
Interactive coloring page at Crayola.

Stone Soup Activity
Simple science activity from Janice VanCleave where young students learn what a mixture is.

Stone Soup
Recipe from Taste of Home.

Books

Stone Soup by Marcia Brown
The book, originally published in 1945.  Also available on Kindle.

The Story of Stone Soup
Another version.

Stone Soup
Seven different versions of the tale.

Unit Studies & Lesson Plans

Stone Soup
Suggested activities from New Hampshire Public Television.

Stone Soup
Lesson plan from August House that includes predicting outcomes, characterization, drawing conclusions, sequencing, activities, and cute printables.

Stone Soup Activity Guide
Cross-curricular suggestions for science, language arts, and art.

Fruits & Veggies: A Unit Study
Learn more about the vegetables that went into the soup!

Printables & Notebooking Pages

Stone Soup
Printable with poem from DLTK-Teach.

Drawing & Writing Notebooking Paper {Free Download}
For narrations, copywork, and illustrating and describing your favorite scene from the book.