Stone Soup Cooperative Game

Stone Soup - A cooperative matching game.

Stone Soup starts with a simple story about a stranger that wanders into a small, poor town. He starts a fire under a big pot of water and adds a stone. As he stirs the pot and talks about the wonderful aroma, he talks the townspeople into adding one ingredient after another to the pot until they finally do have a delicious soup that all share.

As you have probably guessed, Stone Soup is a cooperative memory board game where everyone works together toward a common goal. If all the ingredients get into the pot before the fire goes out, you win. The stone is called a "magic" stone, but there is nothing magic about it. I honestly don't know why the word magic has to be attached to so many things anymore to make it seem more intriguing to people.

The game board pictures a pot at the bottom and a lot of empty space at the top (where the cards will be placed). There are 12 different 2-pieces sets of cards that depict food that would go into a soup, such as beans, tomatoes, onion, celery and salt. There are 10 "fire out" cards and one stone card. The game board measures 12" x 16.5" and the cards measure 1.5" square.

A picture of the board from the back of the box.

Something I like about this game is that instructions are printed on the inside of the box lid so you will never lose them.

There is a card game called Stone Soup that I suppose this game was modeled after. It is not made by this company and it came out long before this game. If you want to read about it, I have blogged about it here.

To see other cooperative games I have blogged about, click here.

Object:
Get all of the ingredients into the pot before the fire goes out.

Set up:
Place the board in the middle of the players. Mix all the cards and put them face-down on the board and above the pot. 

Play:
Players take turns. Turn over any two cards. If one of them if a fire out card, place it below the pot. Turn the other card back over and your turn is over. If you turn over two food cards that match, put both of them in the pot. Your turn is over. If one of the cards you turn over is the stone, place it off to the side of the board, your turn is over. Sometime during play, when someone turns over a fire out card, instead of putting it at the bottom you can put the stone card into the pot and leave the fire out card in play (turn it back over). Remember where the fire out card is so that you don't turn it over again and have to place it under the pot. Play until either all the cards are in the soup (you win) or all the fire out spaces are filled (you lose).

Try this:

• Cue the players to look at each card that is turned back over to remember its location, not just casually glance at it. You will need to know this if you turn over its match somewhere in the game.
• Make a pot of soup together after playing the game, working on chopping, slicing, peeling, opening cans, etc.
• Learn to identify the different foods by name. Place all the cards face-up in a grid on the table. Ask the player to pick up the cards by sets as you call out the item.
• Place all the cards face-up in a grid on the table. Set a timer and pick them up by pairs as fast as you can. Go again and try to beat your time.
• Hold a small stack of cards with the non-dominant hand and, one at a time, push the top card off with the thumb. Take it with the dominant hand and place it on the board during the set up.
• Work on visual memory, visual discrimination, spatial relations, manual dexterity, problem solving, in-hand manipulation, executive functioning skills, process skills, socialization skills, play and leisure exploration and participation, food identification

In the box: Game board, 24 food cards, 10 fire out cards, 1 stone card

If you are interested in purchasing this game or just want more information, click on the image below.