An Easy Story Starter Game for Kids (and Adults)

We love our story cubes, which are a set of dice with different pictures on each side. You roll them and then tell a story based on the images you see.

This printable story starter game from Growing Book by Book is even easier and better for little kids because the pictures are bigger and simpler. The pages also provide a structure for the story so you aren’t starting with nothing.

Just print out the pages, laminate or slip them in a protective cover if you like, grab some dice and roll to discover your characters, setting and the problem they are trying to solve.

This is a free download but you have to provide your email address.

This looks like a lot of fun and I’m definitely printing some out to take on our next road trip!

[Photo: Growing Book by Book.]

With little kids especially, linking learning to physical activity really does help them learn. Movement can help kids focus, and it just keeps them from sitting still all day, which isn’t good for anyone.

The good news is lots of different learning activities can be adopted to get kids moving while they learn, so let’s look at some math and number activities that use gross motor skills.

Probably the most obvious thing would be hopscotch, which helps kids count while they hop. You can also mix up the numbers, do skip counting with the numbers, give kids a simple math problem and have them hop to the correct answer, and on and on.

This number hop game from Gift of Curiosity is a more chaotic version, with number flash cards on the floor that kids can hop, skip or jump to as you call them out (this one is more for individual number identification than counting). It’s a great indoor option if it’s too hot, cold or rainy out to do traditional hopscotch, too.

This painter’s tape number line idea from Days with Grey doesn’t involve quite as much movement, but kids can move around while they place things on the number line and work on learning about one to one correspondence. In the blog post they use shoes, but you can count anything you’ve got handy. (Be warned when I visited this website had an ad that continually took up the whole page, but you can get the idea pretty quickly.)

One of the important tasks of learning numbers is learning a parent’s phone number just in case it’s ever needed, or how to dial 911 in case on an emergency. Teaching Mama has a great way to practice telephone numbers and get some movement in with a giant telephone keypad made out of paper plates. You can also use this for counting practice, but it’s a great idea for learning phone numbers, too.

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