September was Hunger Action Month, and a mom approached me about doing a series of special library storytimes focused on food and hunger. She had the idea to include a food drive for the local food pantry, which was a wonderful way to tie learning and action together.
The other awesome idea this mom brought to the storytime was a hands-on retelling of Stone Soup, complete with her homemade set of props (see below). It’s such a simple story: hungry travelers stumble into a village that doesn’t have much food. Everyone is carefully guarding what little they have, and no one will share with the hungry travelers. What to do? Make stone soup, of course! Three stones in a bubbling pot of water (and some clever prodding from the travelers) inspires the villagers to share a little of what they have to make a satisfying meal for everyone.
Instead of reading the story from a book, we all got involved with the tale! I found a pot and three people in my stash of flannelboard figures, and then there were the stones:
Stone soup: complete with embellished stones!
The photo quality isn’t great, but each stone has a different soup ingredient painted or stickered to the stone. Each child gets a stone (or two or three) and plays the part of a villager. “Oh gee, this soup would be so much more delicious with salt and pepper!” And up comes the salt and pepper stone. By the end of today’s two retellings, the kids were flocking to the cook pot to share their bounty.
What a great way to bring the story to life!
Many thanks to Carrie at Crafty Moms Share for suggesting today’s storytimes and shaping them into something great.
Children's Services @ the Saugus Public Library 