If you're assigning this to your students, copy the worksheet to your account and save. When creating an assignment, just select it as a template!
Story cubes are dice with special topics on each side, such as setting, characters, or theme. Students are meant to roll these dice at random and to write a story using the information from the roll. The faces of the dice can be simple pictures, words, complex scenes, or a mix of everything.
Writing can be very challenging for many people. Story cubes are very useful because teachers can provide six pre-selected ideas for each element, and the rolling of the dice makes the student more engaged, as in a game. Increase student creative writing skills in your English language arts class with a little help from Lady Luck!
Use the dice to piece together a quick oral story, or have students craft more involved written assignments. Story cubes are a great way to provide both assistance for struggling storytellers, and also can challenge more accomplished writers with creative constraints!
Use a free printable story cubes template above to create extraordinary dice! Each side of the die can be whatever you want, such as different characters, and can include words, pictures, or both. Alternatively, have all students create dice so you will have a large collection of ideas to choose from throughout the year.
Make your own printable story cubes in the Storyboard Creator using the many image assets available, or print out a blank cube template and have students draw their own story ideas.
Note that not every printable cube template folds into actual cubes. There are a variety of nets available, including tetrahedron, rectangular prism, triangular prism, hexagonal prism, and even icosahedron! Just a little bit of math for your English language arts class. Cubes are more like traditional six-sided dice that many students will already be familiar with.
We've come up with some great story cube templates for you to use, but you can also make your own printable story cubes from scratch. Simply follow these steps:
Making a worksheet from scratch is fun, but remember, we have tons of premade templates to get you started. We’ve done all the formatting so that you don’t have to! Read how to use a template below.
We have lots of templates for you to choose from! Take a look at our graphic organizer example for inspiration!
Once you do this, you will be directed to the storyboard creator.
Be sure to call it something related to the topic so that you can easily find it in the future.
This is where you will include directions, specific questions and images, and make any aesthetic changes that you would like. The options are endless!
When you are finished with your story cube worksheet, click this button in the lower right hand corner to exit your storyboard.
From here you can print, download as a PDF, attach it to an assignment and use it digitally, and more!
For more activity ideas, check out back to school activities and homeschool activities Text!
Happy Creating!
Storyboard That is the perfect tool for novel lesson plans and activities because it's so easy to use and extremely versatile. With Storyboard That, you can create a wide variety of storyboards such as the story from the main character's perspective, or any other character's point of view.
You can also use Storyboard That to create a summary of the book, a movie poster, or analyze themes and events. Plus, our printable worksheets make it easy to take the fun offline.
Storyboarding is an incredibly powerful tool for educators because it helps students process and understand the information in a deep, meaningful way. When students storyboard, they are actively engaged in the learning process and can make connections between the text and their own lives.
Storyboards also promote higher-level thinking by encouraging students to synthesize information and think critically about what they have read. Finally, storyboards are a great way to assess student understanding because they provide a visual representation of student learning.
Even the sky doesn't limit this! Story cubes are intended to be a fun way to select story elements, so have fun when making them. Very basic story cubes have single images or words, such as a picture of a child for a character or a theme suggestion of friendship. However, highly creative minds need not be restricted! You can make the faces as simple or as detailed as you want.
Here are a few basic and advanced story ideas that can be represented in either words, pictures, or both.
For additional guidance for students, use the parts of a story for each die, such as "Somebody Wanted But So Then". It would be a total of five dice for students to roll, but the plot may come together more easily for struggling students when the parts are more clearly defined.
Copy one of the editable cube templates above and add creative elements to each face. When you are finished, follow these steps:
When writing a story, students need to determine setting, characters, conflict, and more! Coming up with their own stories can be challenging, particularly for reluctant writers. Provide ideas for students to use with printable story cubes you (or they) can assemble.
During the planning stage of writing, roll for each element you have a die for and see what luck brings! Is the combination of characters and settings a real challenge, or do they fit well together? If you have multiple dice for the same element, roll them together and choose your favorite option, or try to incorporate them all! With your own story cubes, you can make many different stories without having to rack your brain for new ideas.
