How to make story stones…

How to make your own story stones 

1) Buy the stones

I bought these unglazed mosaic stones from Home Depot. I do not think Lowes carries them. They come connected to a mesh sheet and you will need to tear them off individually. I like these best because they are flat, lightly colored, and porous (so the permanent marker sticks). 

  
2) Draw the pictures on the stones using permanent markers 

Here is a basic list covering most of the images I have on the stones….

*PEOPLE (male and female, child and adult, babies) 

*PLACES (homes, hospitals, schools, church, play grounds, rectangular buildings with windows that children project various places onto for their stories) 

*ROOMS (bedroom, bathroom, stairs, door, classroom, cafeteria)

*THINGS (toys, books, food, jewelry, TV, clothes, guns, iPod, phones, money, stop sign, etc)

*ANIMALS and living things (dogs, cats, wild animals, rat, butterflies, bee, ant, spider, plants, trees) 

*FEELINGS (at least two to three of each- happy, sad, angry, afraid, worried, loved, frustrated, calm)

***OTHER THINGS (lips talking, a talking bubble, a thinking bubble, a person taking deep breaths, arrows, a person teasing someone, an ear, a hand, a person using the skill of walking away- two stick figures with one faces away and arrow pointing that way, jail, police handcuffs, fire, water, etc)

*VEHICLES (cars, trucks, vans, police cars, fire trucks, ambulance, school bus) 

  
3) I organize them in the categories I did above and use a plastic dividing case from Hobby Lobby to keep them mostly separated and organized. This helps children find what they need for their stories. 

Be open to making new stones if the child requests one you don’t have! This has allowed me to grow my own collection. 🙂 
4) use them…

For child sharing life stories or trauma narratives, for child explaining an event that day or week and then use the stones to add coping skills and see if it changes outcome of the story, for identifying triggers by placing the rocks in different feelings categories, for fun rapport building activities like choosing three rocks with eyes closed and telling a story, and the list goes on!