How to Tell a Story Blog Tour

Storytelling is so much a part of reading and enjoying books in the library! I know any time I read a book aloud, inevitably hands go up! Our readers make wonderful connections with other stories and always want to tell their own.

A connection or prompt can help young writers craft their own stories. One open-ended question can lead to a draft. A shared memory can also do wonders. But I also have seen the power of pictures and objects to help tell stories, too.

This week, I am joining Jen at Teach Mentor Texts, Ally at KidLit Frenzy, and Jennifer at Reederama in sharing our experiences with a game set called HOW TO TELL A STORY from Workman's Publishing. The game consists of a guide book and a 20 colorful 6-sided storytelling cubes.

The guide book is written by Daniel Nayeri, and illustrated by Brian Won. In the book, Nayeri writes about the process of storytelling. Reading through the introduction of the book, I felt as if I were listening to Nayeri speak on a panel or at an author visit! Very early in the book, Nayeri explains the way the cubes work, and that the colors each relate to a different part of speech: red: People and animals; blue: things; yellow: descriptions and emotions, and so on. Each cube has a wonderfully illustrated picture (inside the back and front covers readers will find all of the cube sides identified). I tried to familiarize myself with the cubes before trying them myself.

Watch the video here:


In "playing" with the cubes by myself first, I found it helpful to break it up in pages and try one activity at a time. I then got so caught up in the story beginning I had created that I stopped in the middle of the book. I had to remind myself it was a guide and a resource when using the cubes. I gave myself permission to use the book as needed.

I pulled cubes by myself first, and created a good story starter with a red, yellow, and orange following the prompt on page 20:

Once upon a time there was a (yellow) (red) who dreamed of visiting a faraway (orange).

Red: A wild boy= People and places
Yellow: Scared/fearful = Emotion
Orange: Magical Forest = Place

My story is now this: Once upon a time there was a scared wildboy who dreamed of visiting a faraway magical forest. Now, that is a great story starter!

I tried out a few more of the activities myself, then during a quiet moment in the library on a Friday afternoon, I had three students try out a few prompts. (They first wanted to look at all the cubes, so I happily had them do that!)

On page 32, I found this prompt: Pick a (yellow) and imagine the backstory of (red) feeling (yellow)

The first student picked a (yellow) that  was: heartbroken/sad, and their (red) was a mummy.
The student then had his prompt: Imagine the backstory of a mummy that is heartbroken. 

That is an amazing prompt! I had him write this in his journal for a future story. 

With another student, I followed a prompt on page 46: A (red) wanted nothing more in this world than a (blue).

The student chose a cat  for (red) and a throne for (blue).

A cat wanted nothing more in this world than a throne. 

That was another awesome prompt!

After trying out these cubes and the book in my own way (with a small group and as part of a sort of mini-writing workshop during this Friday time) I think I would love to try out more of the game set in this way. I can see myself coming into the classroom to do this OR creating a mini-writing station in the library. I am excited to continue to try them out!

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