I read Hairy Maclary about 6 times a day. August LOVES it - so I wanted to bring the story to life a bit. I made these story stones last night and I was SO GIDDY to show him his morning. He instantly loved them - it's 2pm and we've read the book twice and told the story with stones 3 times so - I'm only going a bit insane!!! 

HOW:
📖choose a story your baby loves that has a few characters.
📖 gather some pebbles. Make sure they're big enough to not be a choking risk.
📖 get someone with a printer to fraudulently use their office supplies to print you off an incredibly important document such as pictures of Hairy Maclary.
📖 cut them out.
📖 cover the stones with mod-podge, stick the paper picture to the stone, then cover the whole thing in more mod podge..

*mod-podge is a kind of craft glue that leaves a clear sort of varnished effect. PVA glue will dry clear and do a similar job. 

LANGUAGE OPPORTUNITIES:
OH so many. We read books for the language they provide and this just takes it one step further. I was able to show with movement that the dogs were running away from the cat. I was able to show them walking, sniffing, snooping. The stones made the characters more concrete - sort of showing that the dogs are a real thing and not just noises in the story.
Props like these stones bring meaning to the story. They support language comprehension, the sequencing of the story and listening skills. I can't WAIT to make more of these for other stories. 

Watch the story interaction here