Everyone has a story to tell—little kids especially love sharing stories about all the imaginary worlds and people they've created. And story-telling is a great way to help improve your child's speaking and writing skills. If you're looking for ideas to get your child sharing, here's an activity to help: create Character Cubes! Similar to Fairy Tale Dice, roll these cubes for inspiration, and start spinning some wacky and silly stories! This is a quick and wonderful activity for a rainy day or a slow afternoon at home.
What You Need:
- 4 clean, cardboard 1⁄2-gallon milk cartons
- Scissors
- Paper
- Tape
- Markers
- Contact paper
What to Do:
- Make two dice by cutting the milk cartons in half and sliding the bottom of one carton inside another (two cartons make one cube).
- Cut paper into 12 pieces. Cover each side of the cubes with a piece of paper and tape in place.
- On one die, draw six items in which your child is currently interested (for example, a dinosaur, truck, horse, princess, and so on).
- On the other die, write six action words and draw a picture that represents the action (for example, swim, fly, fall, brush, shop, and so on).
- Cover the cubes with contact paper. Now that your cubes are ready, it's time to play!
- With your child, model using the dice to create a crazy story. Roll the item die and make up something about the picture that is facing up. For example, “Once upon a time, there was a very small dinosaur that lived all alone in a very small apartment.” Then have your child roll the action die and add to the story that you began. For example, “His apartment was surrounded by soup so when he wanted to go anywhere, he had to swim.”
- Keep taking turns adding to the story until one of you reaches an ending! If you have more than one child playing, keep rolling the dice until every child has had a turn to tell part of the story.
If you want, you can write down or tape-record this silly story so that it can be shared with others and enjoyed again and again!
By Ann Kelly
Adapted with permission from "The GIANT Encyclopedia of Kindergarten Activities." Copyright 2004 by Kathy Charner (Editor), Maureen Murphy (Editor), and Jennifer Ford (Editor). Used by Permission of Gryphon House, Inc., Maryland. All Rights Reserved.
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