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Roll-a-Story Dice Basket
Printables Basket

Roll-a-Story Dice Basket

Three printable dice - who, where, and what happens. Roll all three, and you have a story you have to tell whether it makes sense or not.

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Ages 5-1020 min prep

My six-year-old could tell stories out loud for an hour but froze completely when asked to write one. The dice fixed that, because the dice choose and he only has to join up.

The best rolls are the impossible ones. A grandmother, in a submarine, who loses a shoe. He will argue his way to making that make sense and that arguing is the story.

We keep the three dice in a small tin in the car. Twenty minutes of a journey disappears into one absurd rolled story.

Folding the tabs - hold each one for a slow count of ten.
Folding the tabs - hold each one for a slow count of ten.
The whole basket: dice, planning sheets and a pencil.
The whole basket: dice, planning sheets and a pencil.

What you'll need

  • The printable roll-a-story dice PDF, printed on card - three dice plus one blank
  • Scissors and a glue stick, or double-sided tape which is much easier for small hands
  • Colouring pens for decorating the dice before they are folded
  • A story planning sheet from the same PDF, and a pencil
  • A small tin or pouch to keep the dice in
  • Optional: a storytelling card game, for when they want more prompts than three dice can hold
  • Optional: a phone or recorder, for recording the told version before it gets written down

How to make it

  1. 1

    Print the PDF onto card - plain paper works but the dice go soft after a day of rolling.

  2. 2

    Colour the faces in before cutting anything out. Once it is a cube, colouring is impossible.

  3. 3

    Cut along the solid lines and fold every dotted line firmly, both directions, before gluing.

  4. 4

    Glue the tabs one at a time and hold each for a slow count of ten. Do the last flap last, tucked in rather than glued.

  5. 5

    Roll all three: who, where, and what happens. The rule is that whatever comes up must be used.

  6. 6

    Tell the story out loud first, all the way to the end, before any writing happens.

  7. 7

    Then fill in the planning sheet: beginning, middle, end, in three boxes and three sentences.

  8. 8

    Use the blank fourth die for their own ideas - family names, their school, the dog. That one gets rolled the most.

Tip

Print two copies of the blank die. The homemade one, filled with their own people and places, always beats mine. If a roll makes them stuck, allow one re-roll per story and no more - the stuck bit is usually where the good idea is hiding.

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