Ooo, One of the baskets we did and it sold for so much, we could not believe it. Was a "Stone Soup Basket"
We purchased a hardback copy of this book. But there are many to choose from. But you could also have the children help write and draw their version of Stone soup. Assign them a page to tell their version. They can write their part and then do the illustration and make sure they sign it.
Have it bound.
One of the moms is an amazing potter, she r donated 4 of her soup bowls. We then had a child go to the creek that runs by the school and find a nice sized stone. (had them scrub and wash it.) and then found some primitive looking napkins.. From the "sale shelf" at World Market.
We found a perfect condition stainless steel ladle at Goodwill! $1.00!
We had a basket, lined it with 2 of the napkins, stacked 3 of the bowls, rolled up the other 2 napkins and tied them with ribbon. Then placed the stone in one of the bowls facing out towards the front of the basket. The Book was in the back, facing out. So it looked great on Both sides.
The Description tag explained that the Rock was a very special "Soup Rock" the basis for a delicious soup. The Rock was from (we named the creek). Named the mom that had made the bowls..(go to a pottery shop and look on their sale rack, you can even tell them you are doing this for a school, maybe they will donate some bowls. They do not need to match perfectly.
And we explained that there was a recipe in the book. We used a bit of jute rope to tie the cellophane with, but Rafia works just as well. with the ladle tied to the bow.. Remember to twist the cellophane and use tape around the twist and then tie the Jute, Ribbon or Rafia around it.
It hardly cost us anything. People were bidding on that basket all night long.
http://www.abebooks.com/Stone-Soup-Paperback-Ann-McGovern...