Story Cubes and End of the Year Gifts

First, I want to say thank you to Confessions of a Teaching Junkie who had this fabulous idea for end of the year student gifts. (Go to yesterday's post to find the link to her original post). I tried and look at my results!  Oh my gosh they turned out SOOOOOO GOOOD!  I hope the kiddos love 'em as much as I do!  Just take a look!

How perfect are these?

21 frames later, all stacked up and ready to go!

The longest time was typing up all the words the kids came up with.  I used the website www.tagul.com and they came out really well!  I am really pleased with them, can you tell?

And now...STORY CUBES! 

Has anyone ever seen these before?  There are three sets (that I know of) and each set consists of 9 dice-like cubes.  You can use each set independently OR intertwined.  Here's how they work: a child, student, writer, babysitter, teacher, storyteller, or bored person rolls a number of dice (you chose how many you want to roll.) You are then supposed to use the prompts i.e little pictures on the dice to help you start, join in the middle, or end a story.  They are super fun to use in small groups or in a center.  here are some close ups of the dice/pictures. 

And now for best news ever if you love this game...as in everything else in this world, they now have an app for that!  

Sure, it costs $1.99 but if you have iPads at your school, you can get a 20% discount if you buy 20 or more applications (school-pricing).  

I love these as they do nothing but empower the gift of a person's imagination.  The "eye" cube could be for example: laser eyes, a psychic power, or the power to see through walls or long distances.  I found mine at Barnes' and Noble and Amazon.com for pretty cheap price, about $8 a set.  Not bad when you think about the HOURS of enjoyment and the fabulous stories that come from their use.  So, hats' off to you, Rory and to your cubes as well.  Thanks for the toys, but better yet, thanks for the permission to let our imaginations run wild.  

Always,

Shauna

PS Tomorrow I'll walk you through the students' paper-bag memories book.  They are really cute!