Illustration of soldiers walking through a forest while kids hide behind a tree
Art by Jennifer Bricking
Fiction,

Stone Soup

In this folktale, hungry strangers bring a small village a big surprise. 

By Laine Falk | Art by Jennifer Bricking
From the December 2022/January 2023 Issue
Lexiles: 490L
Guided Reading Level: K
DRA Level: 16-18
Featured Skill: Vocabulary, Main Idea,
Vocabulary: mysterious, explorers, tracks, mystery, discover, clues, examine, investigating
Topic: Social Studies,
Common Core Standards
  • RL.2.1 Key details RL.2.3 Describe how characters respond to events RL.2.6 Point of view RL.2.10 Read grade-2- appropriate stories RI.2.9 Compare two versions of the same story SL.2 Participate in conversations about grade-2 texts L.2.4.a Use sentence-level context as a clue to a word’s meaning
TEKS Standards
  • Science
    (3) Scientific investigation and reasoning. The student knows that information and critical thinking, scientific problem solving, and the contributions of scientists are used in making decisions. The student is expected to: (B) make predictions based on observable patterns (4) Scientific investigation and reasoning. The student uses age- appropriate tools and models to investigate the natural world. The student is expected to: (A) collect, record, and compare information using tools, including computers, hand lenses, etc., as appropriate; and materials to support observations of habitats of organisms

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Think and Read

As you read, think about how the people in the town work together. Does it help them? How?

Long ago, two soldiers walked through the woods. 

They were coming home. 

They had just fought in a war. 

They hadn’t eaten for days. They were famished. They had passed many villages on their way. At each one, they had asked for food. But no one would feed them. 

The first soldier stopped. “Look, another village!” he said. “Maybe they will share some food with us!” 

“They won’t,” said the other soldier. “No one has given us food so far. No one has any food to share.”

“But we could try,” said the first soldier.

Nearby, some children overheard them.

“Those soldiers look hungry,” said Michael. “But my family doesn’t have any food to share. We only have a few turnips.”

“We only have a few potatoes,” said Jane.

Suddenly, a soldier said, “Do you hear voices?”

The children ran back to the village.

PAUSE AND THINK: What were the soldiers talking about?

Jennifer Bricking

The Soldiers Come to the Village

In the village, the children saw Michael’s mother. They told her how they had seen starving soldiers in the woods. She became upset and agitated. 

“Oh no!” she said. “We must warn everyone in the village!”

She ran and told the other villagers about the soldiers. The people got scared. They didn’t want anyone to take their food.  

“Hide the food!” they said. 

The children went to Jane’s house. Her father was hiding potatoes in the closet. 

There was a knock at the door. 

Outside, one of the soldiers said, “Can we please have a little food?”

Jane’s father said, “We have no food to share.”

The soldiers knocked on every door. The answer was always the same. “No food!”

PAUSE AND THINK: What did the people do with their food?

Jennifer Bricking

In the Town Square

The soldiers sat in the town square. Their stomachs were grumbling. 

The children were spying on them again. Michael stepped on a twig and made a noise. One of the soldiers didn’t notice. But the other soldier did. 

“Hmm, someone is here,” he thought. He peeked around and saw the children hiding behind some bushes. 

“I have an idea,” he said loudly. “Since no one here has any food to give us, let’s make food for them.”

The other soldier was confused. “Huh?” he said. 

“We don’t have any food.” 

“We can make them stone soup,” said his friend. 

“Stone soup? What is that?”

The children rustled in the bushes. 

The first soldier pointed to the bushes. Now the second soldier saw that children were hiding there. He caught on. “Yes! Of course, stone soup!” he said. “The best soup in the world!”

“But we’ll need a big pot,” said the first soldier. 

Now the children came out of hiding. 

“We can get you a pot,” they said.  

“We’ll need some other things too,” said the soldiers. 

The children said, “We can help!” And they rushed off. 

PAUSE AND THINK: What did the soldiers say they will make?

Jennifer Bricking

Making the Soup

Jennifer Bricking

The children went around the village. They got a pot for the soup. They got wood for a fire. And they got a bucket of water. Everywhere they went, they told people about stone soup. 

“Stone soup? What’s that?” said the villagers. 

Soon, everyone in town had come to the town square. The children gave the soldiers what they had found. 

Now the soldiers made a fire and boiled the water in the pot. 

The first soldier turned to the crowd. “We need a stone,” he said. “That’s the main ingredient.”

“We have one!” the children shouted. They grabbed a stone and dropped it into the pot. 

The soldiers sniffed the boiling water with the stone in it. 

“Hmm,” said one. “I wish we had salt and pepper.”  

Michael’s mother turned to her son. “You can get it, Michael,” she said. 

“And you know what would make this even better?” said the other soldier. “Some potatoes.”

Jane looked at her father. 

“Oh, go ahead,” said her father.

Jane brought the potatoes from the closet.

The soldiers added the salt, pepper, and potatoes. They tasted it again. 

“If only we had carrots and turnips,” one said.  

The villagers looked at each other. Soon they had all scattered to gather every ingredient they had.

PAUSE AND THINK: So far, what ingredients have the soldiers put into the soup?

Jennifer Bricking

A Feast

Jennifer Bricking

The villagers brought all the tasty ingredients they had hidden at home. Now the soldiers added carrots, turnips, onions, celery, garlic, and peas to the soup. 

Finally, the first soldier tasted the soup and said, “This stone soup is delicious!”

“Everyone, get a bowl,” said the other soldier.

The villagers brought bowls and spoons. They brought tables and chairs too. 

Everyone sat down and had huge helpings of soup. It was scrumptious! They shared such a feast! Everyone agreed that it was the tastiest soup they had ever had. 

Soon, when everyone was full, they told stories. They stayed up late laughing and talking.  

The next morning, the soldiers left the village. The children skipped alongside them.

“We’re so glad you came,” said Jane.

“I wish we could always have stone soup,” said Michael. 

The soldiers looked at the children. “You can,” they said. “You only need a stone . . . and the help of an entire village.” 

THINK AND WRITE: Have the soldiers taught the villagers anything?

video (1)
Slideshows (1)
Activities (6)
Skills Activities
Quizzes (2)
Quizzes (2)
video (1)
Slideshows (1)
Activities (6) Download All Quizzes and Activities
Skills Activities
Quizzes (2)
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About the Story

Casel Social-emotional Learning Focus

Social awareness: demonstrating empathy and compassion

Step-by-Step Lesson Plan
Download the Lesson Plan

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

The big question of this issue of Storyworks 2 is, what can we learn from the foods we eat?

  • Reading and discussing “Stone Soup” along with the other themed texts in the magazine (the Mini Read, “The Pokémon Café”; the paired texts, “The Gingerbread Man” and “Real Gingerbread”; the past to present feature, “The History of Tacos”; and the poetry kit, “A Lot Dog”) will help kids think critically about this question.

1. BEFORE READING

Show “The Big Question” Video (10 minutes)
Watch “The Big Question: What Can We Learn From the Foods We Eat?” (This video also goes with other stories in this month’s Storyworks 2.)
  • Before your students watch, ask them to think about the question “what is a mystery?"
  • Watch the video.
  • After watching, ask the question again. Write students’ ideas on chart paper.

Preview Vocabulary (5 minutes)

  • Play the online vocabulary slideshow. This story’s featured words are famished, ingredient, scattered, agitated, scrumptious, and feast.

Text Preview Bookmarks (5-10 minutes)

  • Students can use these evergreen bookmarks to help them preview the text. Our skills page has both fiction and nonfiction options for kids to cut out. They can use the fiction bookmark for this story.

Introduce the Genre and Set a Purpose for Reading (15 minutes)

  • Now tell students they are going to read a fictional story. This story is about two kids discovering mystery tracks. Tell them it connects to the video they watched about mysteries.
  • Read the Think and Read prompt on page 24: “As you read, think about how the people in the town work together. Does it help them? How?”
  • Ask students what they think the answer could be. Write their ideas on chart paper.

2. READ THE STORY (10-20 MINUTES)

  • Kids can read this story individually, in small groups, or as a whole class.
  • Check comprehension as you read the story with the Pause and Think questions. These help check basic comprehension as you go along.

3. AFTER READING: FOCUS ON ELA SKILLS

Assessment: Quiz (10 minutes)

  • Pass out the quiz, which will help you assess students’ reading comprehension.
  • We also offer a lower-level quiz.

ELA Focus: Word Work (15 minutes)

  • Ask students to fill out the printable “Word Work,” ask students to answer questions about the meanings of words and phrases in the story.

ELA Focus: Parts of Speech (15 minutes)

  • Using the printable “My Yummy Day,” students can fill in the blanks with different parts of speech to create a silly story about cooking a meal.

ELA Focus: Writing (20 minutes)

  • Using the “How the Characters Change” printable, kids can write about how the soldiers help the villagers learn and change over the course of the story.

ELA Focus: Story Map

  • As a class, discuss the characters, setting, and key events in the story.
  • During or after the discussion, ask students to fill out the “Story Map” printable.

Enrich the Learning: Paired Text Opportunities (time amount varies)

Making text-to-text connections builds knowledge and comprehension. We layer Storyworks 2 with many ways for your students to make connections.

Pairable Texts Tthe Mini Read, “The Pokémon Café” (pages 2-3); the paired texts, “The Gingerbread Man” and “Real Gingerbread” (pages 18-21); the past to present feature, “The History of Tacos” (pages 22-23); and the poetry kit, “A Lot Dog” (page 32)

  • These texts ask questions similar to those posed in the story.
  • Kids can compare the texts by using our “Yummy Chart” printable. How are the texts alike, and how are they different?

Whole Issue Scavenger Hunt (15 minutes)

We created a scavenger hunt for several stories in this month’s Storyworks 2, including this fiction piece. The scavenger hunt can be done by students independently at home or during class time.

  • This is a self-contained group of slides that guide your students on a scavenger hunt through the whole issue. It’s not only fun, it also helps them make text-to-text connections.

Text-to-Speech