Story Cubes

Story cubes are cubes with six different pictures or symbols on it. You will need a minimum of three cubes to play the game. Someone will throw three (or more) cubes and the player has to improvise a story using the pictures that are facing up. The story can be as long (or as short) as the player wants, but it has to consist of all the pictures the cubes are showing.

Story cubes are sold in many variants, but they are also easy to make yourself.

What do you need:

• Paper cube templates on A4 paper* (you can also use wooden cubes that you can buy in your local DIY shop)
  If you want the cube to be a little bit sturdier you can glue the template on thicker paper before decorating.
  It will be a little bit harder to fold together but it will be easier to play with.
• Glue (something like a Pritt stick will probably work best)
• Colouring pencils/crayons or just a black marker if you would like to work with black and white cubes.
• Scissors
• Story cube symbols* (these are optional and can be used to help younger children)

* The word documents attached consist of the paper cube template and the story cube symbols.

Steps:

1. You can either start by cutting out the cube template or you can do that later on.
2. Ask the child(ren) to decorate the six empty sides of the cube. Make sure the strips for folding are not decorated because they will be folded inwards and are therefore not visible once the cube is finished.
   The story cube symbols can be used as an example for the child(ren) or they can hold both sheets against a window (the symbol sheet first) and copy the symbols on their cube.
3. Once the cube is decorated you cut out the template if you have not already done so.
4. Fold the folding strips inwards and build the cube by putting glue on the folding strips. Make sure the folding strips are glued inwards so they are not covering any drawings.
5. Once the cube has been folded and the glue has dried the cubes are ready to use.

If you are making the cubes with a group of children you can put the children in small groups and have them play with each other’s story cubes.
If you are looking for a quieter activity you can also have the children write down their stories.
Story cubes can also be used to start a creative writing exercise, all children will write a different story that is for sure!

Have fun making your own story cubes!

I will try out this activity with a group of children tomorrow and I can hopefully post some pictures of the results soon.

Word documents:
Story cubes
Symbols story cubes

  

Here are some examples of cubes made by children.