Rock Matching Activity for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Rock activities are so much fun! 

My LO used to bring sticks, stones, and leaves and state they were her collection. 

She’s so sweet. 

I remember thinking, “What is she doing?”

She is my first born and I didn’t really know what to expect. 

To my surprise, nature activities are just the most beautiful thing. 

She would collect treasures and bring them back to her “garden.”

I love her! 

I’ll be sharing below a simple activity you can try with pebbles and a fun matching game with them. 

First, my girls painted them and then I set out a paper roll and traced them as each stone had their own special curves and unique dents to them. 

Related: Looking for another fun nature activity? Check out this post right here. 

Materials: 

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• Pebbles

• Markers

• Paper Roll

• Acrylic Markers to decorate your rocks. 

Early childhood educators rock activities 

Here are some fun ideas you can try with rocks: 

• Rock Animals

• Pet rock painting ideas

• Rock seasonal theme

• Rock preschool categories (about me, construction, Christmas)

• Preschool rock theme activities 

• Rocks in a sensory bin

• Rock Counting

• Rock Art

• Alphabet Letter Rocks

• Painting rocks for kids animals

• Shape Rocks

• Matching Rocks

• Rocks Memory Game 

• Align the rocks on a tape. 

• Rock decorations for grandma and grandpa or a loved one. 

• Name spelling activity with rocks

• Cute painted rocks for kids

• Beginner painted rocks for kids

• Lesson plans using rocks

These are just some fun Montessori rock theme activities you can try that will work with rocks. 

How I set up this simple rock matching activity: 

• I traced each of the rocks onto a paper roll that was set out on the table. 

• Then, my LO’s matched the rocks in its correct order. 

• There are so many benefits to loose parts play and you can read some of them here. 

You can definitely tailor this to a fun color matching activity. 

I wanted to add dot stickers to the rocks stenciled out on the paper roll and the actual rocks themselves and create a fun and easy matching activity. 

But, I knew they wanted to paint them thereafter so I did not add dot stickers onto the rocks in case they were to be hard to peel off. 

You can also add uppercase letters to the rocks and lowercase rocks to the stenciled out rocks on the paper roll or vice versa. 

Then, match the uppercase/lowercase letters and learn through play, yay! 

Add numbers or shapes for a fun counting and shapes activity with the pebbles/rocks.. 

Rock games science activities can also be a fun activity for learning about the life cycle of a butterfly or the life cycle of a frog.. 

Have you tried a fun game with stones or painted rocks before? 

If you’ve painted rocks or tried any fun game with stone/pebble activities leave a comment below letting me know how it went and what you tried! 

Maybe we can try it out too! 🙂