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A Stone Soup Lesson Plan
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Objective: 
 to promote the value of sharing and sense of community.
Learning Outcome: 
 "demonstrate an ability to manage food and resources in various situations" (p. 78)
References: 
  • Baum, Gregory (1998). Stone soup: reflections on economic injustice. Montreal:   Paulines.
  • Forest, Heather (1998). Stone soup. Little Rock, Ark.: August House Little Folk.
  • McGovern, Ann (1968). Stone soup. New York, Toronto: Scholastic.
Preparation: 
 Ask students to bring a vegetable to class for the next day.
Teacher will bring a stone and not explain why.

As you make the soup, tell students the story as soup is prepared.
OR
Group students with their vegetable in groups of four or five. Give each group one stone and give words SHARING, COMMUNITY, HUNGER. Students are to make up their own story and role play their story to the rest of the class.
Debrief: 
 Benefits of working together and sharing (reflected in full bodied soup or only stone soup). Brainstorm solutions to hunger in local communities. Raise issues of poverty.
Follow-up:
 Freeze soup and donate to local soup kitchen. Sell bowls of stone soup and use funds for donation to local charity (may raise awareness within school about hunger, community, and the power of sharing).

Use news items as a daily class starter for discussion and questions or cartoons to inspire discussion.

Teachable moments:

 Buy local produce instead of imports, then bring your decision to attention of students in the lesson in which you use the produce. Ask the students why they think you choose to  pay more for locally grown tomatoes instead of tomatoes from Mexico. Ask: What are the
benefits? (consider pesticides, support of jobs/local economy, quality) Do we treat our farm workers better than those in Mexico? (consider long hours, low wages, lunchroom and washroom facilities, lack of safe transportation).
Involve students in feeder schools. Have students develop mini lessons on nutrition topics appropriate for elementary students. Invite elementary students to your school and have them go through four to six stations that
are developed by high school students. Stations can be nutrition games, quick cooking experiences, story telling related to food, math problems, science experiments, etc.