Roll A Story

Roll A Story

"I don't know what to write about" gets a lot harder to say when the ideas are already sitting on the table. Roll A Story uses 10 illustrated storytelling dice to give your child the characters, actions, places, feelings, and other details he needs to get a story started.

Roll the dice and see what appears. Your child might find an animal, a place, an emotion, an object, or something completely unexpected. He chooses which pictures belong together, decides where his story should begin, and figures out how to connect seemingly unrelated ideas into something that makes sense.

Because there are no right answers, the same dice work at very different skill levels. A younger child can name the pictures and tell a simple story aloud. As his language skills grow, he can add details, sequence events, explain motivations, and create a beginning, middle, and end. When he's ready for written composition, the pictures become ready-made writing prompts instead of leaving him staring at a blank page.

Storytelling builds skills that come before strong writing: organizing thoughts, choosing words, making connections, sequencing ideas, and communicating them clearly. For a reluctant speaker or writer, having something concrete to talk about can make getting started considerably easier.

The 10 picture dice cover people, animals, food, places, transportation, feelings, weather, actions, sports, and objects, creating an enormous variety of possible combinations. Roll one die for a quick prompt or several for a more challenging story. Your child can also group related pictures, describe what he sees, compare images, or explain how two unlikely pictures could belong in the same story.

There is no reading required, no score to keep, and no winner or loser. Just roll the dice and see where the story goes. When you're finished, everything tucks back into the included carry bag, ready for the next tale.