I came across story dice a few years ago, and have wanted to make a Bible story set for ages, and I’ve finally worked out how to do it, so here they are!
As there as 6 sides on each die, I think that 3 dice is probably enough. I’ve kept the pictures simple and at least some of them possible to interpret in different ways to give us the most variety of stories. I bought the blank dice then wrote on them with a permanent marker. (I tried a fine line Sharpie but it smudged a bit so I used this one.)
Here’s a few ways I’m going to be using them:
1 Roll the dice and think of a Bible story which has all three things in it. For example, I rolled a table, some wiggly lines I think look like water and a stalk with leaves on it, so we could do John 13, the story of Jesus’ last supper with His friends, where they eat at a table, Jesus washes their feet with water and then they go out to the mount of Olives, where there would be plants with stalks. Alternatively, we could do Luke 6 where a woman anoints Jesus’ feet and washes them with her tears at the table, assuming they would have eaten something green as part of their meal, which grew on a stalk (!). Be creative! One of the things which helps us starting really getting inside a Bible story is to imagine what it would have been like to be there, for example, even if the Bible doesn’t mention birds in the story, birds may well have flown overhead while other things were happening.
2 Roll all three dice and choose a story, then keep one and re-roll the other two and think of another story, then consider the links between the two stories – What themes are there? What do we discover about God?
3 Roll all three dice, choose a story which links with one picture (house) then ask: “What if this story also had an X in it?” using the pictures on the other die. For example, what if the person who anointed Jesus’ feet was a shepherd (crook)?
4 Take one die each, take it in turns to roll your die and tell a short, 3-4 line version of a story which features your picture. Then chat about which story you like best and why. I wonder which story is the most important? Which means the most to you?
5 Choose a story then find three pictures which you can use to tell the story together.
My pictures include:
- a house
- a tree
- a moon
- water
- a boat
- hills
- bread
- grass /rocks
- a sheep
- a fire
- stalk with leaves
- cloud / rock / bush
- table
- crook
- wheat (or maize or…)
- birds
- fish
- drops (could be oil, rain, tears)