Thanksgiving story: Stone Soup

This lesson is for K–5 Exceptional Children who are mild to moderately disabled. This lesson will incorporate listening, daily living, fine motor, and augmentive communication skills.

A lesson plan for grades K–1 English Language Arts

By Christina Pond and Sarah Boling

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Related topics

• Learn more about Stone Soup, cooking, language arts, learning disabilities, listening comprehension, and read-alouds.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• sit and listen to the story
• recall the story by naming the vegetables in the story
• use daily living skills and fine motor skills to prepare “stone soup”

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

1.5 hours

Materials/resources

• Stone Soup by Marcia Brown from your local library
• crockpot
• can opener
• hand chopper
• water
• three clean stones
• a small bag of clean cut carrots
• one medium onion
• two cans of green beans
• four potatoes
• two cans of chopped tomatoes
• 1one can of green peas
• one can of corn
• two cans of beef broth
• two pounds of browned cooked beef
• salt and pepper to taste
• hot plate or access to a stove (if not using crockpot)

Technology resources

Boardmaker Communication symbols for Augmentive Communication, which can be purchased from Key Technologies. Their telephone number is 888-433-5303.

Pre-activities

• When introducing this story, explain it is important that people need to work together to help one another.
• Make sure the students wash their hands and keep them clean.

Activities

1. Introduce the story to the children. Explain that they will be hearing a story about a soup made from stones.
2. Read the story. Have a pot, some stones, and some of the vegetables on hand.
3. While reading the story, stop and have students recall some of the vegetables that are in the story. You may want to have some visuals during this time.
4. At the end of story, ask questions that are appropriate for your students’ level of cognition.
5. Let the students know that it is time to make their own “stone soup.”
6. Prepare soup:
   • Ask students what goes in the soup first. Answer: Get a pot and fill it with water. Get pot out and put in two cups water.
   • Ask students what comes next? Answer: Stones. Put stones in crockpot gently.
   • Tell the students that after the stones were put in the pot they added salt and pepper. Have students measure out a 1/4 teaspoon of salt and pepper, explaining the process and helping as this happens. Add to the soup.
   • Ask them what vegetable came first. Answer: Carrots. Have the students open the bag of carrots and add it to the soup very carefully.
   • Continue with this process with the remaining vegetables, demonstrating and assisting with can opener and stressing that the ingredients must be added very carefully, so you don’t end up with a mess. Finish up with the beef and beef broth.
   • Plug in pot and cook on high two and a half hours.
   • Serve for lunch.

Assessment

• Students will be able use augmentive communication or other forms of communication to recall the vegetables that were in the soup.
• Students will be able to measure the ingredients successfully.
• Students will able to manipulate can opener.
• Students will be able to pour ingredients successfully.

Supplemental information

This is a good lesson to start first thing in the morning around 8:00. It needs several hours to cook. Eat at lunch about 12:00. To speed up the process you can do it in a regular pot and cook on the stove.

Teacher supervision needed at all times.

Comments

Eat up and have fun!