RSC108_PackagingSingle_3DR_rgbRory’s Story Cubes excite the imagineer in everyone, but add a little “Dr. Who,” the British science fiction classic, and the adventure blasts-off. Led by a rogue time traveller, “The Doctor,” episodes range back and forth through the ages in their TARDIS craft, joined by companions thwarting evil forces in ingenious ways. The variety of curious, thought-provoking images that can represent characters, threats, tools and alien settings takes young storytellers in many directions. My young friend wasn’t familiar with the theme but Dad was so we reviewed the story. He was excited about the idea of a time machine and overcoming aliens unleashing chaos on earth. He loves history, recognizing Genghis Khan, Cleopatra, and Queen Victoria  so he enjoyed traveling to the future to gather some aliens and back to Queen Victoria’s time for a battle between the British and people of India. 9 cubes with 54 icons give a storyteller infinite sequences, twists and turns for his plot, using the images literally and figuratively.  It’s fun to “hide” the icon legend and let the kids freely invent a story. The “Cavern” die face transformed easily to a mouth, earthquake or cave, while “Counting (the Silence)” became a scrape, scar and tattoo. Teachers know the importance of generating a good sentence with a beginning, middle and end (3 cubes each) as well as the essential parts of a story–characters, setting, problem, actions, conclusion which are being strengthened through repeated episodes generated by kids! What a creative way to build language skills to become a better reader and writer.

Available at Rory’s Story Cubes. Click here