Make your own story cube

Story cubes (also known as story dice) are a great way to generate story ideas, whether you write them down or choose to tell them aloud!

Below is a cube template for you to print and use. It is large enough for pupils to draw different illustrations onto the sides. You can either:

• Print one cube per pupil, and then ask small groups or pairs to roll the cubes together to generate a new story starter. Wherever the cube lands is the prompt for a story!
• Give pupils multiple templates to create more than one cube, then let pupils roll their cubes individually to create their own stories.
• Create a class set or sets of cubes that the class can roll together to generate story ideas.

Scottish Book Trust recommends creating three cubes from the three categories below: setting, character and item. Setting, character and item are key starting points for any story.

If pupils are making just one cube each, we recommend they choose to decorate two sides from the three categories. e.g. two characters, two settings and two items. The lists below are suggestions and not prescriptive, and remember pupils can be as creative as they like when picking their story cube prompts!

Setting

• Beach
• Castle
• House
• City
• Planet
• Mountains
• Hot air balloon
• Space

Character

• Dog
• Dinosaur
• Alien
• Robot
• Shark
• Snowman
• Octopus
• Elephant
• Happy person
• Sad person

Item

• Clock
• Letter
• Backpack
• Key
• Guitar
• Magic wand
• Camera
• Torch
• Treasure map
• Magnifying glass
• Present

Find out more about creative writing for schools.