Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Stone Soup will find this post helpful. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book. You’ll have everything you need to deliver engaging interactive read aloud lessons based on this story.
With themes of sharing, taking turns and compassion, this Stone Soup picture book by Marcia Brown is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will be a big hit in your classroom too! Learn more about this book below!
Engage Your Students with Stone Soup Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Stone Soup. You can find it in the section below.
- Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
- Download the book companion to make lesson planning simple with Stone Soup reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
STONE SOUP SUMMARY
The folktale Stone Soup by Marcia Brown tells the story of three soldiers on their way home from war. Tired and hungry, the soldiers decide to stop in a village in search of food and a place to sleep. The villagers see the soldiers coming and begin to hid all their food, they too are hungry. After stopping at many houses in search for food, the soldiers stop. They announce to the villagers that they will make Stone Soup.
The curious villagers gather around the soldiers to see what they are going to do. As they start making the soup the soldiers begin asking for different ingredients: first salt and pepper, then carrots, and eventually beef. Each time, villagers run back home to get the ingredients they’d hidden. Soon enough, the soldiers made a large, delicious soup. Together, the villagers and soldiers put together a feast and spend the night eating and dancing. Grateful for what the soldiers taught them, the villagers let them stay the night in the best beds in the village. Stone Soup is a great story to teach sharing and kindness.
STONE SOUP LESSON PLAN IDEAS
Each of our 400+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide to make lesson planning quick and easy, printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.
When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for Stone Soup, we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you.
We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.
READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
The text-based Stone Soup reading comprehension questions focus on:
- making inferences
- making predictions
- analyzing character
- plot (problem-solution)
- making connections
- cause and effect
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- sharing/taking turns
- compassion
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- adjectives
- action verbs
- pronouns
- prepositions
STONE SOUP ACTIVITIES
You’ll receive all of the following resources aligned to the story:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
YOU HAVE 2 OPTIONS! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK COMPANION?
BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for Stone Soup?
- Lexile® Measure: AD550L
- Guided Reading Level: N
- DRA Level: 28
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 3
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Marcia Brown. It was illustrated by Marcia Brown.
What genre is Stone Soup?
It is a fiction book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students.
How many pages are in the book?
The story is 48 pages long.
