Tamaqua Elementary School fourth-grader Allie Clausius tapped her pencil thoughtfully, then repositioned the five stones on her desk.

"OK, we have to start to plan this out," she said to Tamaqua eighth-grader Kayla Zamudio."I'll start with the flamingo, as the main character, and the story will happen outdoors, at night."Clausius moved the stone with a pink flamingo painted on it, placing it next to a stone painted dark blue, except for a quarter moon. Then she considered a stone depicting a lion."We have to think about what might happen if the lion comes," she said."We could have it turn out good or bad."Whatever the outcome, it would be something that Clausius first imagined, then created as a written story. It was the launch of Story Stones, a concept adopted by Tamaqua eighth-grade art teacher Kim Woodward."Each of my eighth-grade students painted at least five stones, and some painted more than that," Woodward said."We were able to purchase the paint supplies because of a grant from Tamaqua's Raider Foundation."Guers Topsoil and Mulch Products, New Philadelphia, donated the 600 stones a few months ago, and the eighth-graders worked on them during art class."I'm finding that when I add writing and art together, the students are writing pages and pages," Woodward said."They are elements of creativity that work well together. And also, in this age of technology, we are missing the face-to-face communication," she said."It's great to see all the students talking to each other and working together."Fourth-grade teacher Andrew Michalik, who hosted the Story Stones, said the meeting of students from the different grade levels was very special to him."Some of the students who are now in the eighth grade are students I had during my first year of teaching," Michalik said."That's one of the things I'm also enjoying today, seeing them again."The eighth-graders carried wooden crates full of Story Stones into the classroom. Each student was limited to three minutes to select five of the stones."Remember, when you're picking out the stones, that your story needs to have three elements, character, plot and setting," Michalik said."Once you have that planned, just write."And write they did. All over the classroom, students were busily discussing story ideas and putting pencils to paper."This is the first we've seen the Story Stones in use, and looks like they're a hit," Woodward said."They will also be used at Rush and West Penn Township elementary schools, the Tamaqua Library and the Tamaqua Community Art Center."Fourth-grader Zachary Markiewicz said three minutes wasn't long enough for choosing the five stones."There were so many and they are all really good," he said. "You could just keeping adding stones and writing; you could do that all day."Who would have thought that a handful of stones could be so inspiring?"When we started this project, I really didn't know how it would work and what the students' reaction would be," Woodward said, looking out over the bustling classroom."It's great to see all the students so interested this is really turning loose their creativity."