Description:
The children were given the opportunity to make up their own stories using various images painted onto stones
Links to EYFS:
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Communication and Language
Literacy
Understanding of the World
Expressive Arts and Design
Activity:
We started this activity by painting various images onto large round stones using non-toxic acrylic paint e.g. bird, flower, ice cream, airplane, forest, girl, boy, etc. The "story stones" were then presented to the children and they were encouraged to make up their own stories by looking at the different painted pictures, making up a story relating to the pictures and then putting the stones into event order.
For the older children, more stones were used and they were encouraged to give their story a name and write it down on paper. The children could also take pictures of the stones that they had used for their story.
We talked about how stories are written, structured (beginning, middle, ending), who are the characters, what is the plot line, and what was the resolution.
This activity helped to increase the children’s communication, language and speaking skills and also encouraged them to use their imagination as well as learning new words.
For children whose English is an additional language, we learnt what the different pictures were called in their first language/language spoken at home.
Home Activity:
Instead of reading a bedtime story to your child, ask them to use their imagination to make up a story to tell you. You could also make up a story to tell them in return.
