Stone Soup Wooden Playset
Autumn 2011 , Celebration
Rhythm of the Home4 Comments
This set is perfect for use as a demonstration of the story in The First Thanksgiving. It also would be a great addition to a nature table or centerpiece for Thanksgiving dinner. I chose the iconic tipi home for the ease of making it, but you may also choose to use a more historically accurate structure, such as a wetu.
Supplies
For the tipi you will need:
A few thin dry twigs cut to 9 inches
Embroidery floss
A needle
Tan or brown fabric
A dinner plate
A marker
Scissors
For the wooden Native Americans and Pilgrims you will need:
Non toxic paints and brushes
Wooden peg dolls
Instructions
To make the tipi, draw a circle on the fabric using a plate as your template.
Remove the plate and cut out the circle, removing one quarter of the circle as shown.
Overlap the tipi as shown, making a triangle, and stitch up and down and the point of the overlapping sides. Make sure that you do not go all the way through to the back of the tipi. Tie off and knot the floss, then trim.
Gather the twigs into a bundle and secure them tightly at the top with embroidery floss.
Snip off the tip of the tipi to allow for insertion of the twigs.
Insert the twigs at the gathering up through the top of the tipi from the bottom.
Spread out the base of the twigs until they hold the tipi upright.
For the Native Americans and Pilgrims, you can make the figures as elaborate or plain as you wish.
Below you will find my drawings in pencil for all four of my figures.
A little Pilgrim maiden.
And her handsome Pilgrim fellow.
They make an awfully cute couple.
A beautiful little lady.
And her brave man.
I added braids using a diagonal paint stroke, and I gave them necklaces.
I painted a candle cup black to create the huge black pot to be filled with pebbles, mimicking the cooking of stone soup.
A recipe for stone soup can be found here.
Editor’s Note: For a wonderful resource on sharing the Thanksgiving Story with children, please read Teaching About Thanksgiving.
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Julia Daby is a Registered Nurse who lives happily with her husband and little boy in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. She enjoys crafts of all kinds, eating good food, reading, and being outdoors. Most important of all….she enjoys spending time with her family and friends. She has a small store on etsy where she and her twin share sewing and fiber tutorials to inspire creativity in other Mamas. She writes about life, family and creativity at Happiness Comes and We Deserve This.
