Rory's Story Cubes

This game was developed while Rory presenting storytelling workshops for children as part of StarLit Children’s Literary Festival. The workshop ran right through their break, and some kind of physical game was called for. This game was tested over three days. It’s not perfect, so let us know if you have made improvements to the rules.

Setup

• You will need one cube for each child playing.
• Find a space to play, where there will be enough room for the children to run around.

Rules

• One person scatters the cubes onto the ground.
• Each child grabs a cube and runs away.
• The last person to grab a cube is ‘Number 1′. He/she is the story-starter, but first needs to build a story chain.
• The story-starter must attempt to catch other players to add to their story chain. The next person caught becomes ‘Number 2′ in the story chain.
• Number 1 and 2 then try to catch a Number 3, and so on until all players are caught.
• When all the children have been caught, they line up in number order.
• The group tells a chain story, each child using one image from his/her cube.

The brain needs oxygen to function properly, so combining physical play with storytelling is a great way to energise the imagination.