Turn Stone Soup into Science

Over the course of several years, my daughter’s classes have read the book Stone Soup and made their own versions. It’s a lovely story to do in a classroom environment, because it highlights the idea that everyone brings something different to add to the pot (or the classroom), but everything/everyone together makes it special/delicious.

Books and Giggles had another fun idea for making Stone Soup into a science investigation: do stones in the soup make it taste different? Check out the site for the scoop and a printable science investigation sheet.

Of course, making soup is already science because you are measuring things, adding heat, following directions and all the great things we learn in the kitchen. And it’s just fun to cook together, whether with your own child or in a group at school.

Do you make stone soup with your kids at home or in a classroom? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Books and Giggles.]

When my daughter was younger I would spend a lot of time trying to come up with activities she could do in the car on long road trips and things to entertain her when we were waiting at restaurants and things that didn’t involve screens.

But it turns out there are a lot of great activities you can do with just a piece of paper and a pen.

What Do We Do All Day has a great collection of pen and paper games, including some that can be done with just one person, though they’re all more fun if you have at least two.

There are some classics on here like hangman and dots and boxes, but there are also quite a few I hadn’t heard of before.

I don’t want to spoil the whole list for you because you should definitely click over there and look around, but I will share about the one that you see pictured above.

This game is called Bridges, and you start by making the big random shape and the dividing it into a bunch of sections (the post says 30-50 sections is ideal but I think this one is smaller than that).

Each player gets their own color marker and you take turns drawing bridges from one space to another, crossing a third. Once there’s a bridge, no other bridges can start, end or cross in those spaces. Keep going until no more bridges can be built, and the person who makes the last bridge wins.

Check out the post over at What We Do All Day for more great ideas for no or almost-no prep games you can play with your kids or that kids can play together. I’d love to know if you have a favorite paper and pen game, whether it’s on this list or a different one.

[Photo: What We Do All Day]

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