There are a couple of ways you can use pebbles to help focus attention. You can either use one pebble to help focus on looking — called a "focus rock" — or you can use a set of four pebbles in what is known as a "pebble meditation".
Focus Rocks
Mindfulness expert and author Annaka Harris explains how to develop mindful looking by using a focus rock. Ask the child to sit still and tall, like a mountain, and place their small rock or pebble about two feet in front of them. After closing their eyes and focusing on their breathing, ask the child to look very closely at the rock's patterns, colours, shapes, and details.
They can then tell you about it or just notice how something small can have so much detail when you pay close attention. They can try this activity with a leaf or shell, too.
Pebble Meditation
Another activity involves collecting a few pebbles, which each represent something different — a flower, mountain, water, and space. My daughter's nursery has links with Plum Village — an international Buddhist practice centre in France — and they produce really helpful resources to use with children, one of which is this pebble meditation.
Take each pebble in your hand in turn, and repeat the following phrases. When you breathe in, imagine yourself as that symbol; for example, with the flower pebble, you would say, "I am a flower". When you breathe out, imagine yourself as the quality of that symbol; for example, you would say, "I am fresh as a flower". The flower is helpful when you feel angry.
With the mountain pebble, the quality is "solid", which is helpful when feeling frightened. With the still water pebble, the quality is to have a calm mind that will "reflect things as they are", which is helpful when the mind doesn't seem clear. With the space pebble, the quality is to "feel free", which is helpful when you feel trapped or bored.
This can nurture an interconnectedness with nature and introduce meditation in a fun way. My daughter chose pebbles that looked like each of the symbols and also drew on them!