Planning seasonal activities in your classroom can be tricky if your students do not celebrate holidays. Teachers need resources with fun alternative activities that everyone enjoys. If you have students who do not celebrate Thanksgiving, a great alternative would be a unit based on the Stone Soup story. Here are some Stone Soup activities we offer for your independent writing center.
Why Have Stone Soup Writing Center?
Stone Soup is a fun story for your students to learn. The story touches on kindness of strangers which is perfect for November when you’re teaching gratitude, kindness, and friendship.
But the story of Stone Soup also has a bit of trickery involved, so it’s fun for students to draw their own conclusions about the character’s motivation.
Interactive, Hands-on Stone Soup Activities
Students stay engaged when writing feels fun and interactive. The Stone Soup Writing Center includes activities that give students different hands-on ways to practice vocabulary and writing skills.
1st Grade Writing Center Resources
Draw And Write Pages – Use for narratives or informative writing
Write What You See Pages – Use for informative writing pieces or descriptive writing
Write What You Like Pages – Use for narratives or descriptive writing
Stone Soup Writing Topic Spinners – Students spin a paperclip on the paper to choose a word to write or to use in a sentence or short paragraph
Find, Color, Write – Students find Stone Soup vocabulary words, color the pictures, and write the word or use the word in a sentence
Stone Soup List Template – Students write words from the vocabulary poster
Letter Template – Students write letters to a friend
Writing Templates – writing pages for students to write words, sentences, or short paragraphs
Vocabulary Minibook – An 8 page trace-and-color minibook. Just print back–to-back, fold, and staple. Use for handwriting practice, ELL, makes a great take home book
Digital activities on both Google Slides, and Boom Cards
Stone Soup Vocabulary Poster – Print, laminate, and post at your writing center. Or, slide poster into student writing folders. Students refer to the poster throughout their writing time for writing ideas, correct spelling, and picture references
Stone Soup Vocabulary Cards (two types) – Print, laminate, and cut out word cards and add to a small pocket chart at your writing center. Students use the cards to sort vocabulary words or feed to the stove puppet. (Puppet game directions included)
Digital Activities
- Students drag and drop an image of the vocabulary words to the center of the slide, then type the word and use it in a sentence.
- Google: Students swipe through vocabulary slides, read the words and sentences aloud and write them on one of the writing templates.
- Boom Cards: Students identify the matching picture of the vocabulary words, then read the sentence along with the audio.
Differentiation At Your Writing Center
With the Stone Soup activities, all students engage with the same first grade writing activities, but the expectations shift based on ability. Beginning writers focus on individual words, developing writers write complete sentences, and more advanced students are ready to try short paragraphs.
Every activity is carefully designed to support independent writing practice at a student’s current level, ensuring that all learners feel successful.
The Stone Soup activities help 1st grade students build independence, strengthen vocabulary, and practice different types of writing. With a variety of printable templates and interactive activities, students practice descriptive, narrative, and informational writing at their own level.
Includes vocabulary support, digital tools, and flexible formats to meet a variety of classroom needs. Easy to prep once and reuse every fall.
Download the Stone Soup Writing Center here and get everything you need for an easy-to-use, differentiated writing resource.
More First Grade Writing Activities For Your Classroom
Free Thanksgiving Writing Paper
Grab a set of free Thanksgiving-themed paper – comes with 20 fall writing ideas.
Setup Guide for Writing Centers
Step-by-step tips for printing, prepping, and introducing your writing centers. Includes ways to organize and reuse activities all year long.
20 Pumpkin Read-Alouds
20 fiction and nonfiction pumpkin picture books to add to your classroom library
