Good morning and Happy Monday!  Today I will be sharing my tutorial on how to create Story Rocks.  This Story Rocks Tutorial will be the first installment of my new series I’m calling Rocking Motherhood Mondays (great name, right?!).  Every Monday, I will post an activity, craft, or insight on various teaching methods to help engage and encourage you and your child through the journey of development and education.  My goal is to help you better prepare your child for their future all while having fun!  Now back to my current post about my tutorial on Story Rocks…

This idea for the Story Rocks came about a few weeks ago when my mother-in-law brought over a little gift for Miss Sassy Pants: Create A Story Cards (check them out on Amazon… they are amazing and great for long car rides), which my kiddo just loved.  The idea is that you draw cards from the deck and then you create a story using the pictures on the five cards you drew.  It is a lot of fun and allows the imagination to run wild.  Some of the stories my kiddo has come up with so far just blow me away.

Since the cards were such a hit, I decided that we could create our own using rocks.  Originally, I had planned to utilize an outside activity that would encourage us to go exploring to find rocks, but we were having such bad weather that I scrapped that idea and purchased crafting rocks instead (don’t judge).  Then we just decorated them however we wanted.  I did try to encourage a variety of decorations so each rock would be different, but other than that, I just let her do whatever.  To say this Story Rocks Tutorial is a blast is a complete understatement.  My daughter and I are both crafty and love anything that can include glue, glitter, and the color pink, but this activity doesn’t stop there.  There are endless possibilities, which makes it great for anybody… even those that don’t like glitter or for those who are NOT crafty!

Story Rocks Supplies:

• Rocks
• Stickers – do not use puffy stickers (as seen below) or stickers that do not fully fit on the rock! No matter how many tears are shed… those stickers won’t stay on the rocks!  
• Googly Eyes – Use the Tacky Glue to attach
• Paint – I recommend a satin finish
• 2 Paint Brushes – one for the Mod Podge and one for the paint
• Mod Podge – sparkle
• Sequins – I used the Tacky Glue to secure them to the rocks
• Tacky Glue
• Any other decorations that you can think of or already have on hand.

Tutorial Steps for Story Rocks:

Step 1:  Rinse the rocks with water then dry them off

Step 2:  Decorate… feel free to decorate all sides of the rock!

Step 3:  Mod Podge… I used the glitter Mod Podge and as you can tell they look awesome!

Step 4:  Let them COMPLETELY dry

Step 5:  Start creating fun stories together!

Here are some of our Story Rocks:

Meet Roxy the Rock… seriously, how adorable is she?!  And then there is our buried treasure rock that is covered in “diamonds.”

 

This project is ideal for any age… all you must do is adjust the difficulty for the age you are working with.  Remember that you’re dealing with heavy rocks, so if your little one likes throw things – beware!  Also, don’t choose supplies that could be choking hazards if that is an issue for your kids’ ages.  Since my focus was for a toddler, I utilized stickers, and crafting supplies that were easier for her to manipulate independently.  I also encouraged her to do the work so that she was practicing her small motor control.  And lastly, it taught her patience to wait to play with the rocks after they completely dried (this was a challenging task even for me)!

Story Rocks are a great way to encourage literacy.  Literacy is how we communicate with each other in our society.  The ability to read, write, speak, and understand are all parts that make up literacy.  Through storytelling, your child will build on their literacy skills.  Learning and understanding word order, comprehension, and narration through telling stories… all while having fun!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial for creating Story Rocks!  Stop back by next Monday for the next installment of Rocking Motherhood Mondays.

Cheers to Education!
Lisa