Story Cubes for Young Readers
Rebecca from Thirteen Red Shoes is with us today to share a fun activity to share with the little readers in our lives…
Story cubes are such a wonderful way to engage children in a story and to check for comprehension. Often when children are beginning to read they are so focused on sounding out unfamiliar words that meaning is lost. Through working together with your little ones you can help them grasp the key concepts of a story in order to maintain comprehension.
The best part is that they are simple to create!
- Choose a familiar story and read it together or listen to your child read to you.
- After you have read the story use the cube template download to create a story cube.
- A cube has six sections and in each one there is enough room for a sentence focusing on the key components of the story. I chose to focus on the following six areas for a narrative text however you can make your focus what ever you wish.
- square 1: title of the story
- square 2: setting/ scene
- square 3: characters
- square 4: beginning
- square 5: problem
- square 6: resolution
Books to use initially as your children get used to the cubes could be familiar fairy tales such as:
- Goldilocks and the Three Bears
- The Princess and the Pea
- Puss in Boots
- The Ugly Duckling
- Little Red Riding Hood
- Anthology of Fairy Tales
As they become more familiar with this learning process you could introduce books that they are unfamiliar with in order to gather their level of comprehension. With older children you could focus on developing character cubes, one face of the cube for each character in the story or chapter book, or scenes from the text which were significant in the theme of the story. The possibilities are endless.
You can find the cube template here. There is also an online version in which you can direct children to create a story cube online!
