Wanna know how to get amazing prompt words for writing to help your students write and even speak more in English? Then story dice are your go to tool! Story dice are dice that have pictures on them instead of numbers, and there are nine of them. If you roll them, each of the dice will display a picture. Students must then use the pictures to tell a story. You can use the dice to have students write a story, or tell it out loud in small groups!
I’m always looking for fun and original ways to get students to speak and write in the target language. It’s not always easy because they don’t like to speak in front of their peers because they’re scared to make mistakes. And writing is difficult because they don’t know what to write and so they never start. By using these dice, I make the process more fun, game-like even, and they won’t even know they are practicing their language skills. Wanna know how it works?
What is a writing prompt?
A writing prompt is a way to give students inspiration to start writing or speaking. If you just tell students to start writing or to start speaking without giving them anything to hold onto, they will often find it very difficult to start. I find that it is better to prompt them into writing or speaking with an anchor of sorts. In other words, I give them something to work with. This might be a picture, a question, an object, or story dice!
Prompt words are key
These story dice function like a prompt words generator basically, except the dice don’t have words but pictures on them. Students will have to use the words they think are depicted by the dice they roll. This leaves room for some creativity, so that’s fun!
Roll the dice and get key words for narrative writing
What you want out of rolling the set of dice is to get key words to write a story. How it works best for speaking in English:
- Students sit together in small groups.
- One student rolls all the dice.
- The pictures that are on top must be used in the telling of a story as they each function as prompt words for writing. Can be in any way the storyteller deems possible.
- The other students listen to the storyteller and make sure their classmates uses all the pictures.
- The next student rolls the dice and the process repeats itself.
How it works best for key words for writing in English:
- Students sit together in small groups.
- One student rolls all the dice.
- The pictures that are on top must be used in writing the story. Two ways possible:
- All students use the dice that have been laid out. When all students have finished writing, they compare their stories by reading each other’s work, or by telling the stories out loud.
- Each individual student rolls the dice for their own story. This means that each student must copy down the words that they think are depicted in their roll, before they give the dice to the next student. They can still read or hear each other’s stories, just for fun!
Now doesn’t this sound like so much fun?
That’s because it is! I use story dice for various purposes in my lessons.
- Sometimes just to give a brain break and let students have some fun between more serious work.
- Other times I make it a specific writing task with either a theme (Halloween, Valentine’s Day, etc.) or a technique (neat handwriting, capitalization, punctuation, paragraphing, etc).
- On occasion, I’ve needed students to loosen up before a bigger and more serious speaking assignment, so I had them tell silly stories using the dice.
- You can use this as an introductory task before a lesson or as a review of a topic you taught. For example: “Tell a story using a lot of prepositions.” Or connectives, or whatever topic you taught.
So give story dice a try some time, because you and your students will love them as prompt words for writing!
But where to get them? So there are two options. I have four sets, and different ones at that. First, I have two sets of Rory’s Story CubesTM, which you can get from Amazon. I have the original one, and the Actions one, which is a bit pricier. Or you can get cheaper ones on Amazon too, but I haven’t tried those. Click here to check out cheaper options! But then I also found two really cheap sets at Tiger! Do you have a Tiger, or Flying Tiger near you? Then go check out if they still carry them! Or check out if you can order them on their website. Enjoy!
Related articles:
How roll-the-dice sheets can work wonders are creative writing prompts
Top 5 best writing prompts for creative writing to help your students thrive
How to use postcards as super fun picture writing prompts
