Story Stones: Sparking Literacy Through Play

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In this short and inspiring episode of Let’s Talk Teacher to Teacher, Dr. Gina Pepin introduces Story Stones — a playful, hands-on tool that makes storytelling and literacy come alive. Discover what story stones are, how to make them (without fuss or expensive supplies), and creative ways to use them for building language, narrative skills, and even social-emotional connections in your classroom.

From circle-time adventures to writer’s workshop prompts, Dr. Pepin shares practical strategies you can try right away — plus a “Try It Tomorrow” tip that will have your students’ imaginations soaring with just five simple stones.

Whether you’re teaching early literacy, looking for fresh storytelling ideas, or simply want to add more joy to your lessons, this episode will give you a pocket-sized strategy with a big impact.

Tune in, and start sparking stories — one stone at a time.

Check out more at www.ginapepin.com

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:02):
Welcome back to Let's Talk Teacher to Teacher,
the show where we sharepractical, powerful, and playful
ways to build joyful learning inthe classroom.
I'm your host, Dr.
Gina Pepin, and today we'retalking about one of my absolute
favorite literacy tools,StoryStones.
It's a hands-on, low prep, bigimpact way to spark storytelling

(00:24):
and language development in anyage classroom.
So what are StoryStones?
StoryStones are just what theysound like.
They're small stones or pebblespainted or decorated with little
pictures, symbols, or evenwords.
Each stone represents acharacter or a setting, an

(00:44):
object, or it could evenrepresent an event.
When our children pull a stonefrom the pile, they use it as a
prompt to tell part of a story.
It's open-ended, it's tactile,and it builds oral language,
sequencing, creativity, andnarrative structure in such a
natural way.
and playful way.

(01:04):
So making story stones is supereasy.
It's a breeze.
There are three easy methods.
First one is you can paint themby hand.
Let students decorate their own.
You can have simple images likea sun, a dinosaur, cupcake, or a
castle.
Of course, all these things cango a long way.
You can use stickers or you canmod podge plus, you know, mod

(01:28):
podging printed images rightonto the rocks.
You can do it by keeping a themeso try stones story stones for
fairy tales or for emotionsseasonal vocabulary sight words
or even at the secondary level Ishare in a lot of my
presentations that you could usethem as a to an accompany a

(01:50):
novel that you're working onwith your class a pro tip could
be even that you seal them withclear nail polish or of course
mod podge so that they'll last awhole lot longer the There are a
lot of ways to use story stonesin the classroom.
The possibilities are absolutelyendless.
Try some of these.
For circle time stories, this iswhere each student pulls a stone

(02:13):
out of a little tiny bag.
You can get those little cinchsacks from like Oriental Trading
where they're colorful likecanvas bags that they pull with
like a drawstring.
They're a little bit smallerwhere you can fit maybe 10
stones.
For those circle time stories,each student pulls a stone and
adds a line to like acollaborative of class story,
this ongoing story buildingprompt.

(02:36):
You can also use it in writer'sworkshop as prompts.
Use them to spark journalentries or short stories as they
pull a stone from the bag.
You can use them for retellingfamiliar tales.
So you give students storystones for the three little pigs
and you let them actually act itout.
Or you have them put them intosequence, specific sequential

(02:58):
orders so that students can helpremember and work on retelling
and comprehension you can alsouse story stones in the
classrooms as a feelingscheck-in so you have emotion
stones they help let kids sharehow they're feeling at that
moment most importantly thisisn't just a literacy tool it's

(03:20):
a social emotional tool and it'sa connection builder so here's
your try it tomorrow tip putjust five story stones in a
basket or a little drawstringbag Maybe like a cat, a house,
star, tree, and a pizza.
Tell your students, let's make astory using these five stones

(03:42):
and then let their imaginationtake off.
You'll be amazed by what theycreate and how many literacy
skills they're using all atonce.
That's it for today's episode onStorystones.
It's a simple, sensory-rich toolthat invites creativity and
builds storytelling skills onestone at a time.
Thanks for listening to Let'sTalk Teacher to Teacher.

(04:06):
If you loved today's tip, leavea review, share the episode with
a teaching friend, and remember,great stories start with small
stones.
Until next time, keep the joyand keep the story and keep
teaching from the heart.
Check out the free story stones,images, and PDFs on my website

(04:29):
at www.ginapeppin.com

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