These are usually used to inspire children to invent stories, but I’ve found they can also be used to let them choose Bible stories to explore and engage with the stories.
It’s an activity which can be done at any time of year, but we’ve done it on not-so-warm days when I don’t want to be outside for too long, so collecting stones to be washed and drawn on is the perfect length activity for now. It would, of course, also work well on a trip to a river or the beach.
I created about 20 stones using tippex, but you could do it with Sharpie pens or paints. I need to varnish them so they don’t chip, but they are already in use as my daughter loved picking them out and asking for stories about Jesus. I find by having the stones and just moving them into an ‘arena’ so they take the focus while I tell the stories, we can cover huge amounts of Bible in one sitting, and see the patterns in Scripture, such Jesus calling and re-instating His disciples.
I choose to make the following stones to tell these stories:
Stones:
1. Man x2
2. 4 men
3. Woman
4. Girl
5. Boy
6. Baby
7. Bread
8. Wine cup
9. Water
10. Boat
11. Fish
12. Tree
13. Rain cloud
14. Moon
15. Sun
16. Heart
17. Fire
18. Angel
Stories:
1. Jesus calls his disciples from being fishermen
2. Jesus calms the storm
3. Jesus feeds 5000+ people
4. Jesus celebrates His last Passover with His friends
5. Jesus dies and comes back to life
6. Jesus appears to His disciples by the lake
Rachel and her family use their story stones in reponse to the story. She says:
“I made some a while ago and we’ve used them lots. We use ours for response time. Someone reads from the Bible and then everyone in the family takes it in turns to pick a stone and say why the story made them think of that stone. It sparks lots of interesting conversations, not least because my limited artistic talents mean some of the images are ambiguous and open to interpretation!”
What will you do with yours?