How to Make Story Stones and Different Theme Ideas

Story stones are a fun way to change up your storytelling with kids, whether you have a set that specifically goes with a story you like to tell or you have a bunch of rocks with different images on them you use to tell a story.

When my daughter was little we didn’t have story stones but we did have storytelling dice, which you roll and then make up a story that includes all the images.

Making your own story stones is a lot of fun, and this post from The Wild Cherry Farm is a good overview of how to make them and how to play with them. Older kids can help paint or draw on the stones, while younger kids can offer ideas for the subject matter of the stones.

The post also has some good ideas for ways to play with the stones, such as randomly drawing a set amount from a bag, telling a story with the stones in the order you pulled them, or working together to tell a story picking one stone at a time.

In addition to general images like the sun, rain, a princess, a house, things of that nature, you might want to consider different themes for your story stones. If you’re making them for home use you can make stones that cover your child’s current obsession like dinosaurs, butterflies or things of a particular color.

Kristin Marcelli made a bunch of little story stones with simple Sharpie drawings of different things on them, and her post includes a good list of things you might want to include on your stones. These tiny ones would be fun to add to your small world play or even use to play with playdough and other sensory activities.

I love this set from Little Lifelong Learners that uses stickers instead of painting, because that’s an easy way to get a themed set (which you might also use in a sensory bin when doing a unit study or week on that theme).

Little Pine Learners has some great ideas for story stone sets and how to use them in the classroom. I love these seasonal sets, but they also have ideas for using them for sequencing (you tell a story and the kids pick the stones that tell the story in order) and more.

Homeschool Preschool turns story stones into an alphabet activity with an image for every letter of the alphabet. These can be used for storytelling, learning letters and the words for things and lots more.

Georgia is a state in the United States, of course, but Georgia is also the name of a country that was formerly part of the Soviet Union and now is considered part of Europe. Let’s learn more about the country of Georgia.

Georgia Basics

Georgia is situated on the Black Sea and bordered by Russia, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan. It is home to almost 4 million people, most of whom live in the capital, Tbilisi.

The country is 26,900 square miles, or 69,700 square kilometers.

People have lived in the area now known as Georgia since prehistoric times. It requested support from Russia to defend against hostile neighbors in the early 1800s, which led to Russia slowly annexing their land. Though they were briefly free after the Russian Revolution, the country was part of the Soviet Union until 1991. Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 and still occupies regions of the country.

The word Georgia referring to the region was first seen on an Italian map in 1320, but there’s a lot of debate as to where the word came from.

The majority of people living in Georgia today are Georgians, and they speak Georgian, an indigenous language that is apparently unrelated to any other language family in the world. Most people there practice Georgian Orthodox Christianity.

Georgia is a representative democracy with a president and prime minister, as well as a parliament.

Georgia National Symbols

The Georgian flag has a white background with a large red cross and a smaller red cross in each quadrant made by the big cross. It’s also known as the Five Cross Flag and was a symbol of the Kingdom of Georgia that was repopularized in the late 20th century, though it didn’t become the official national flag until 2004.

The national anthem is “Tavisupleba” or “Freedom,” which was also approved in 2004. The music was adapted from two Georgian operas.

The coat of arms features a lion on each side of a shield with an image of St. George, with a crown above that. The ribbon includes the national motto, which, translated to English, is “Strength is in unity.”

St George is the patron saint of Georgia. (Check out crafts and activities for St. George’s Day.)

Georgia Learning Activities

Twinkl has more about the history of Georgia and facts about the country.

Learn about the giant head sculptures of Sno in this post form Atlas Obscura. They also have a good post about Prometheus Cave, which locals claim is where Prometheus was chained as punishment for stealing fire from the gods.

Check out the giant plane tree in Telavi, an ancient tree that stands 150 feet (or 46 meters) tall and is the largest tree in Georgia.

This one is for the parents, but you might want to learn more about the history of wine making in Georgia, which is considered the birthplace of wine making. Evidence of grapes and grape seeds in the region dates back to 6000 BCE.

Georgia is so proud of its wine making history the the famous Mother of Georgia statue in Tbilisi holds a sword in one hand and a cup of wine in the other.

Check out this tour of Tbilisi from a local.

It’s a little tricky to search for Georgia specific activities and get the nation, not the state, but this list from Teachers Pay Teachers is pretty good after the first one.

Khachapuri, a Georgian cheese bread, is a popular dish that kids should love. Try this recipe from the Kitchn.

Have you read?

Georgia Basics

Georgia National Symbols

Georgia Learning Activities

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