Back to School Morning Routine Story Stones

These Back-to-school story stones are sure to help with the ease of getting back into routines of Fall and School. Whether your child is going to Kindergarten for the first time, or returning to school this Fall (or returning to routines of homeschool!), these story stones will help with getting kids used to the steps needed in morning routines. What are story stones? Usually, they are stones with pictures painted on them to use in imaginative play. We made story stones to depict the morning routine for preparation and ordering of tasks for back-to-school.

Back to school story stones for helping kids with the routines of Fall and school or homeschool mornings.

make Back-to-School routines easier:

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The morning rush and kids do not go together well. Getting kids up, dressed, brushed, polished, and out of the house without forgetting important items can be more than slightly difficult. Add in more than one child and a routine that gets old after the first week, and you have kids that need prodding with each step. Use these story stones to help kids understand, process, and order the steps of a morning routine.

We’ve used rocks in learning and play before, like in word building and sensory play so this was a fun way for us to play and learn about the coming routine’s of Back-to-School.

Back to school routines schedule

We started with a bunch of white river rocks
and a permanent marker. Figure out the important tasks that your child must do each morning. These can be jobs that they do on their own, or initiate with prompting. We decided that the important steps of our morning are getting dressed, brushing teeth, eating breakfast, brushing hair, putting on shoes, coat, lunch/backpack, and going to the bus stop. You can add any other important steps in your morning, like making the bed, feeding pets, packing a lunch, etc.

Use the permanent marker to draw a representation of the tasks onto the river rocks.

Using acrylic paints, fill in the outlines of the shapes. You will need a fine point paint brush
for the small painting, or you can snip the bristles of a regular paint brush to stay in the lines.

Let the paint dry.

Before the start of school, use the back to school story stones with your child to talk about the routines. You can place the stones in order, move around the order, and talk about each step. Invite your child to use the story stones in imaginative play by pretending to go through the morning’s routine.