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Stone Soup is an old tale that has been retold for many years. There are many versions available using a wide variety of illustration styles and characters. The main character in the story is a stranger who wanders into a village looking for food, but no one in the village is willing to share what little they have. The stranger convinces everyone he can make soup from a stone, and they are all intrigued. He asks each person to add just a tiny bit of their ingredients to his pot with a stone and watch while he makes soup. The community learns that by each giving a little, they can help each other!

Visit the Farmer’s Market – Stop by a local farmer’s market (or grocery store) and check out the fresh vegetables and herbs available. Have each family member pick out 1 or 2 ingredients to add to a soup.

Scrub Veggies – Fill a sensory tub or sink with water and brushes and teach kids how to clean veggies. This provides a great sensory experience for kids, while also teaching them about healthy eating habits and preparing food.

Make Soup – Using individual ingredients picked out by the family, make a delicious and hearty soup together!

Explore different veggies for your stone soup!

Language Development – Have kids use descriptive language to describe the vegetables being used in the soup. Have them compare different kinds of vegetables and explain their differences.

Measuring Practice – Have kids use a clean ruler and kitchen scale to measure and weigh the various vegetables you have chosen for your soup. This will give them practice using measurements, while encouraging them to note the differences among the ingredients.

Kitchen Safety – This experience provides a variety of opportunities to teach kids about properly preparing food and safely peeling and slicing vegetables. Give kids age appropriate tasks and let them watch you carefully completing the more complicated ones.

Spelling Stones – The blog No Time For Flashcards created a fun stone based spelling game for Thanksgiving that can be easily adapted to go with this story. Using dollar store stones, paint a letter on each stone to spell out a word. (You could use chalk if you intend on changing the word for other holidays or books). On the blog she used “Thanksgiving”. For the purpose of this exercise, you can use “stone soup” or “vegetables” or stick with “Thanksgiving”. Let kids move the stones around to see how many other words they can create out of the letters of the word. This can be a fun game to see who can come up with the most. You can also adapt this for other holidays or seasons throughout the year.

Enjoy the spoils of your combined labor and share your hearty soup around the table! Kids will surely remember this story and the fun they had making their own stone soup for years to come!

Share your experience in the comments below! Did your kids enjoy making soup?