Today, you’ll love these cute and simple snowman story stones for winter art activities for preschoolers. Grab my other ideas for a winter unit study.
I am all about learning through play as much as possible, especially when it comes to younger children.
Story stones are fantastic tools that can be used to teach your children so many early literacy skills and more.
They are inexpensive, easy to store and easy to use.
Too, they offer an open-ended learning experience that has many benefits for young budding readers.
First, in creating the story stones your child gets a chance to express themselves artistically.
In addition, they can work on fine motor skills and hand eye coordination.
Benefits of Storytelling Through Hands On
Then, in the storytelling there is so much that the story stones help build and improve.
For example, communication skills, language skills, listening, vocabulary, memorization, recall, imagination, creativity, and critical thinking.
Story stones also help children express their feelings, thoughts, and ideas.
These open-ended winter themed story stones are sure to spark some fun and interesting tales that will entertain both you and your little one for hours.
You can use these story stones in so many ways to change up the learning.
14 Ways to Use Your Snowman Story Stones Creatively
- Have your child blindly draw 4 or 5 stones from a bag and tell a story using the prompts on the stone.
- Ask your child to choose 3 stones for first, next, last and tell you about it.
- Use the stones for young children to work on positional words. For example, put the hat ON the snowman and put the snowman NEXT to the tree.
- Draw a simple winter scene on a large piece of construction paper and encourage your child to place some stones around the scene and tell you about it.
- Place them in their small world or sensory bin play and let creativity take over.
- Start a story with “once upon a time”, pull a stone and give a couple sentences, the next player pulls a stone and continues the story, repeat.
- Use in co-op in small group settings, take turns telling a piece of a larger story.
- Tell a story using the picture prompts, present some sticky situations to your child, like the sun coming out, and ask your child to finish the story with solutions.
- Use the stones to sort living and nonliving items.
- Show the pictures on your stone and have your child tell you the beginning letter, sound, how many syllables, etc.
- In the reverse call out a letter and have your child find a stone that starts with the letter.
- Choose one stone and ask your child to describe it.
- Practice writing the words for the pictures on the stones on paper, a chalk or led board.
- Have your child practice stacking the stones as high as they can to work on fine motor skills and they can tell a story about the objects as they stack as well.
Next, look at some more winter unit study activities.
More Winter Unit Study Resources
Look at these other winter unit study resources and more winter art activities for preschoolers.
- Winter Craft Ideas How to Make Fun Pinecone Flowers
- How to Make an Adorable Toilet Roll Snowman for Winter Crafts
- Easy and Fun Pinecone Snowy Owl Winter Craft for Kindergarten
- Free Amazing Winter Unit Study and Winter Lapbook for Kids
- Easy Hands on Snowflake Winter Craft for Kids Who Don’t Have Snow
- Winter Nature Craft: How to Make Easy DIY Bird Feeders
- 3 Fun Cocoa Winter Hands on Science Activities
- How to Make an Easy Build a Snowman Kid’s Game (free printable cube)
Too, here are some fun ideas of what to paint on your stones.
Of course the best pictures are ones your little ones love, but here are some ideas too.
Winter Art Activities For Preschoolers Storytelling Stones Ideas
- A frozen pond
- Snowmen
- Hats
- Trees
- The sun
- Spring flowers.
- Animals
- Childs favorite items like football, doll, bike, etc..
- Snowflakes
- A road
- Letters or numbers
- Your child’s name
How to Make Snowman Story Stones
You will need:
- Large smooth river rocks. You want them large enough so there is enough surface area for your child to work on them.
- I use acrylic paint /paint pens and sometimes both. Acrylic paint is easy to use, durable, and inexpensive. It is a great choice for this project.
- Paintbrushes
- Any matte clear sealing spray or you can brush on a couple coats of modge podge.
First, wash and dry your stones well to remove dust and dirt.
I got mine at a local landscape company but you can also find them on Amazon or at craft stores if not in your area.
Draw on your designs with a pencil until you are satisfied with them.
Then, use small paint brushes or paint pens to fill in your designs and allow them to dry completely and keep wet q tips on hand to tidy up your lines as needed.
You can also use a paint pen.
Or fabric paint, these have a great small tip for little hands but do come out thick.
Once the designs are dry spray well with a coat or two of clear sealer to preserve them or alternatively you can use paint on modge podge to seal.
Let dry according to directions on the can.
Store the story stones in a pretty basket on a low shelf to invite your curious creative little ones to use them.
