Word by Word: A Story Writing Game

Suggested Grades

1-3

Objective

Students will write a story by focussing on the words. This game may promote students to be critical and concise with their word choice when writing.

Materials

• paper
• pencils
• dice

Method

• Hand out one sheet of paper and one die to each student.
• Explain to students that they will be writing a story and the dice will tell them what to do.
• Ask them all to roll their die, and choose a title for their story that has the same number of words as the number on the die.
• Then continue rolling the die for a preset amount of time. The number that is rolled will indicate how many words the student is allowed to write down.
• When the story writing time is coming close to an end, ask students to roll their die one more time and write a conclusion.
• Variation: This game can be also played in pairs, where each student alternatively takes turns writing out the words to the story to where they would like the story to go.