Many of you commented that you are looking for storytelling activities/materials. One of my best purchases in the past year has been Rory’s Story Cubes and Rory’s Story Cubes Actions! They are each under $8 (Amazon, Target, etc.) – or both for under $14 here – and worth every cent! While more advanced students can follow the instructions/game ideas included in the story cubes, many of our students need a lot of help with storytelling.
Here is one way that I begin introducing storytelling techniques:
As you can see, I use a template with spaces for each die and a sentence or two after it. (I laminate to save paper and time) I either allow them to roll all of the dice at a time and arrange them before writing out their story or I will have them take turns rolling one die at a time and adding it appropriately to the story. The one in this photo was done by my 2nd grade group and I this week. I allowed them to roll all of the dice and they were allowed 1 die change which they chose to use to get the alien at the end! They title the story, add the introductory setting line and then begin. After the story is completed with all 9 dice, they write a conclusion line which ends with “The End”. This works very well with the classic dice but the action dice could be used as well!
Another great way to use the action dice is to practice verb tenses! Very much like the classic, I have them roll dice, place them in the box, and write out the story. Here’s the trick… you have them write it as a present tense story and then go back and change it to past tense! You could do this from past to present as well. I also have a Past/Present/Future template but I haven’t gotten to that one yet.
You could also mix the dice and have them put one classic die with an action die for each line. This gets very tricky and requires a lot of creativity. But it’s a nice challenge for the upper elementary/middle school kids.As they become familiar with all of the aspects of storytelling, they will not need the template as much/at all. Pick up the template here, grab some Story Cubes, and have a blast telling stories!
Thank you so much for this post! I recently purchased both sets of cubes, but had not figured out what I was going to do with them. Thanks for sharing!
What a great idea!!! Thanks for sharing!
great idea!! thanks for sharing!!
http://speechtimefun.blogspot.com/
This looks like a great way to come up with stories. Thanks for the idea!
Rebecca
http://www.rebeccaslp.com
this is awesome! thank you for sharing!
I love the template! I have the story cubes, but was looking for a more structured way to use them. Thanks!
Thanks so much for this post. I had my eye on these for a while and finally got the original set. Actions is on my wish list, too!
Karen
AFVSLP
I LOVE this! Thanks so much for sharing! I recently found out about story dice and can’t wait to use them in therapy. I’m featuring this link on my blog today! Thanks so much for the freebie 🙂
Whitney
http://www.brightideasslp.blogspot.com
I’ve had them for years and never used them for instruction, until now! Thanks for the template! Great idea for creative writing, public speaking or ice breaker activities!
Thank you. I use a lot of activities for structured story-telling in stuttering therapy. Love these cubes and your well organized way of using them. Katykate