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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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Use the story dice to help choose features of the story.

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Experiments in Creativity with Dave Birss - Author, Educator, Public Speaker, Experimenter

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How to use story dice

As you can see above, you get five story dice (or nine dice, if you prefer), each with a random image on it. Your job is quite simply to turn these prompts into a story.

I recommend you try to work with the order they appear on the screen but if you're finding it tough, you can do some swapsies.

You also don't need to take the image literally. You can use the dice metaphorically or as representations of other concepts. For example, a slice of pizza could represent food in general, cutting a slice out of something, Italy, gooiness, a chef and a heap of other more obscure things. The job of the dice is not necessarily to provide you with literal objects to work with but concepts to nudge your thinking in fresh directions.

You may just want to dive in as soon as you see them, working from left to right as you try to incorporate each image into your yarn. Or you may want to be more strategic and work out the ending first, using the dice to work out how you're going to get to your big climax. Try different strategies to see what works best for you.

But let me give you an example. Imagine I was dealt these dice (I don't need to imagine because I just have been):

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Story Dice - a story ideas generator by Dave Birss

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Instant story ideas for writers, parents and storytellers. With this tool, you've always got a free set of story dice in your pocket or desktop.

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Create your very own word search!

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Create your own crossword and come up with clues

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Create a presentation based on your interests

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Create a presentation based on your interests

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Use canva or powerpoint to create a fun and engaging presentation to share with friends or family

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Canva is a free-to-use online graphic design tool. Use it to create social media posts, presentations, posters, videos, logos and more.

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Take 5 minutes to complete a guided meditation

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Relax Your Body & Your Mind ~ 5 Minute Guided Meditation

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Create a quiz based on your interests and test your friends!

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Create a quiz based on your interests and test your friends!

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Read the text and answer the questions

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Note: This post contains affiliate links. As a Skillshare Affiliate and Amazon Associate I get commissions for purchases/signups made through links in this post.

In this beginner guide to drawing, I'll teach you all the fundamentals of drawing, step by step.

We'll start with drawing basic lines and shapes, then we'll transform these shapes into simple 3D objects which we'll then put into a scene with correct perspective.

After that, I'll show you how the principle of construction helps you draw anything you want. And finally, I'll give you some specific tips for digital drawing.
I have good news for you, if you're a beginner artist: You will never progress faster than in the beginning - if you do it right!
So, let's dive right in and start with step 1:

Step 1 - Draw Lines (Warmup)

If you're completely new to drawing, the blank canvas or paper can be a bit daunting.

To overcome any fears you might have, you have to just jump in and start. And the easiest thing that anyone can draw is a line.

So just start drawing lines to warm up your hands. Draw some straight lines and draw some curved lines. The goal here is to just loosen up and get ready for your first drawings.

This should take a few minutes at most.

And don't worry if your lines aren't perfect and maybe a little wonky. It's fine. Just try to get a feeling for the drawing pen.

Step 2 - Draw Shapes

After scribbling your first few lines on paper, the first logical step is to start drawing basic shapes.
These basic shapes are ovals, circles, triangles, rectangles, and squares:
This might sound boring, but to draw 3D objects, you need to be able to draw shapes first.

Just draw these until you get the shapes right and they don't look wonky anymore.

When practicing, don't just draw the shapes straight from the front, try also rotating the shapes:

To improve the difficulty, you can try more complex shapes like stars, pentagons or hearts:

And if you want to practice shapes even more, you can just make up your own. Try combining straight and curved lines. There's basically no limit to your creativity here:

Side note: Circles are the hardest, so don't despair! They can even be a challenge for experienced artists!

Step 3 - Draw Forms

The third level is to draw actual three-dimensional forms. This is where things start to get really interesting and where you take your drawings to the next level.

The most basic forms are balls...

pyramids...

cuboids...

...and cubes:

On top of that, there are cones...

...and cylinders:

If you practice drawing basic shapes, you will soon be able to draw forms as well.

Pro trick: Start with a ball.

First, draw a circle...

...aaaand done! Yep, a ball always looks the same.

Draw A Cone

The easiest form has to be a cone.

To draw that, just draw an oval:

Then draw a dot above the oval...
CHECK OUT: Must-have Art Equipment I Recommend
...and just connect the edges of the oval with the dot:

Draw A Cylinder

Next, try drawing a cylinder.

Draw an oval once again:

Then draw another oval above the first one:

And once again, connect the edges:

Draw A Pyramid

To draw a pyramid, start by drawing a triangle:

Then, add an angled line...

...and connect the end of the line with the tip of the triangle:

Draw A Cube

To draw a cube, start by drawing a square:

Then draw two parallel lines originating from the edges of the square:

Connect these edges with a line that's parallel to the side of the square:

Next, draw a line that's parallel to the new rectangle you just drew:

And finally, connect everything with a line that's parallel to the original square:

And just like that, you learned to draw 3D forms.

Make sure to practice these for a bit. Once again, don't just draw these from the front only - rotate the initial shapes and try different angles.

You can also draw an object that's viewed from below by drawing lines that are angled downward.

Once you feel more confident, we can move to level 4.

Step 4 - Learn To Draw Perspective
To draw objects more convincingly, you need to learn 1-point and 2-point perspective.
If the forms you drew in level 3 looked weird to you, it's probably because they weren't in correct perspective.

1-Point Perspective

We'll start with 1-point perspective.

First, draw a horizontal line on the canvas. This represents the horizon.

Then, mark a point on the horizon line. This is our vanishing point. 1-point perspective is named like that because it has one vanishing point.

As you can see here, I've already drawn some basic shapes from the front:

To turn these into 3D forms in correct perspective, you now need to draw the other lines of the forms.

In the last step, you drew parallel lines. But in correct perspective, all lines that are pointing away from you, go in the direction of the vanishing point. So you can kind of connect the edges of your shapes with the vanishing point:

To determine the depth of your objects, all that's left is drawing the remaining lines. To do that, you draw horizontal and vertical lines that cross the lines that go to the vanishing point. Or, in case of the pyramid, you just connect the remaining edges again.

The only thing left is to erase all lines that don't belong to the objects:

If you draw an object above the horizon line, it works the same way.

Draw a shape...

...connect the edges to the vanishing point...

draw the rest of the object with straight lines...

...and erase the remaining lines:

Now you have an object that's floating in the air.

Finally, we could add two lines in the middle, coming from the vanishing point. And now we have a street:

2-Point Perspective

If you've mastered this basic perspective, you can move to 2-point perspective.

This is basically used most often in art because it's more realistic. 1-point perspective doesn't really exist in real life - but it's useful to learn the basic principles.

As the name suggests, you now have two vanishing points:

You don't have a „front plane" that you draw perfectly straight. Now, only vertical lines are drawn straight. Every other line goes to either the left or the right vanishing point, depending on the direction the plane is facing.

Draw A Cube - 2-Point Perspective

For example, let's draw a cube.

First, draw a vertical line:

Then, draw two lines from each vanishing point to the edge of the line. These will act as guides:

Draw along the guides to create the side planes of the cube:

Next, draw two vertical lines to determine the depth of the cube:

And lastly, draw guides from each vanishing point to the top of the new vertical lines you just drew:

Finally, you can draw the top plane along these guides.

If you erase or hide the guides, you now have a cube:

Draw A Cuboid - 2-Point Perspective

Drawing a cuboid works the same way as drawing a cube. The only difference is that the sides of the object are not the same size:

Draw A Pyramid - 2-Point Perspective

To draw a pyramid in 2-point perspective, we need to establish the ground plane first.
Draw a line from each vanishing point until they cross:

Then, draw two more lines above the first lines:

Now you can draw the ground plane:

To make sure that the tip of the pyramid is exactly in the middle, we need to find the center of the ground plane.

To do that, connect the edges of the ground plane:

The point of intersection is the middle:

Now draw a vertical line starting from that point:

Finally, just connect the edges of the ground plane with the tip of the pyramid:

Draw A Cone - 2-Point Perspective

To draw a cone, we can start the same way as we did with the pyramid:

Once the ground plane is established, we can now draw an oval inside it:

Again, we establish the middle of the ground plane...

...and draw a straight line upwards:

Lastly, we connect the edges of the oval with the tip of the object...

...and erase all superfluous lines:

Draw A Cylinder - 2-Point Perspective

The last missing form is a cylinder.

I think the easiest way is to draw a cuboid first which can act as a guide for the cylinder.

So, let's draw two cuboids - one lying and one standing:

Once you've done that, you can now draw ellipses inside the sides of the cuboid:

Now, all you need to do is to connect the two ellipses with straight lines...

...and erase all lines that made up the cuboid. And also erase the parts of the cylinders you wouldn't be able to see:

All this might be a bit overwhelming at first, if you've never drawn like this.

But I'm sure, with a bit of practice, you can get the hang of it.

And when you can draw these simple forms in 2-point perspective correctly, you should be able to draw a city already:

Because most buildings are simple cuboids. The sidewalk as well. Poles are just long cylinders. Windows on buildings can be just rectangles. You get the point.

Now, you might be wondering how this will help you, if you want to draw something more organic, like animals or people.

That's where the next fundamental comes in:

Step 5 - Construction

The cool thing is, that what I just taught you is the foundation for everything else you might want to draw. With these basic forms you can, in theory, draw everything you want.

For example, you could put together a drawing of a simple character with just a few balls or circles:

In this case, they represent the head, the torso, the eyes, et cetera. The arms and legs are basically cylinders.

This serves as a base over which you can then draw a more refined drawing, so that you don't actually see the basic forms anymore:

The same approach also works for more realistic drawings. In this case I'm constructing a human:

An egg shape for the head, circles or ovals for the chest area and joints and cylinders for the arms, legs and neck.

Of course, this is far from realistic. But it serves as a base to get the general shape, proportions and perspective right.

With a bit of knowledge of anatomy, you can then go ahead and add more defined shapes that resemble the muscles, for example:

This is the next step and obviously requires you to learn anatomy and do a lot of studies from photos.

The same can be done with a head for example.

There are actually complete systems for drawing a head, like the Loomis Method and the Reilly Abstraction. I made a YouTube video about these already - take a look:

With time and practice, you don't need to depend on construction as much anymore. But it's important to learn and always good to come back to.

CHECK OUT: Why Can't I Draw Faces? These Are The 5 Reasons Why

Digital Drawing Tips

Actually, digital drawing is not that different from traditional drawing.

The way I see it, there are three main benefits to drawing digitally:

Undo, layers and Perspective Grids.

1. Use The Undo Shortcut (CTRL + Z)
It undoes the last action you just performed.
You probably know the universal keyboard shortcut CTRL + Z. It works in most computer software.

You can do this in all digital painting programs, too.

Because of this, you don't really need to fear drawing a stroke on your canvas. Even if it's bad, you can immediately undo it and try again.

This might feel like cheating to some people, but actually, it's the same as erasing pencil lines on a piece of paper. You can do this digitally, too, with the eraser tool. But CTRL + Z is just faster.

A word of warning:
Try to not overuse this shortcut. Otherwise, you might end up in a perpetual cycle of not committing to a line. Ever.

2. Use Layers

Layers are another thing that is really useful in digital drawing.

In pretty much all painting software you can add several layers on top of each other.
When you add a layer in a digital drawing, you can continue working on your sketch, but now everything you draw is on your new layer and doesn't affect the original sketch.
It's like drawing a sketch and then putting tracing paper on top to create a more defined drawing.

This way you can build a drawing from the ground up, step by step.

You can start by drawing a very rough scribble on the first layer:

Then you add another layer and draw a more refined sketch on that:
The cool thing here is that you can lower the opacity of each layer anytime. Which means that it's more transparent and doesn't distract you from what you're currently drawing on your active layer.
Finally, you can add another layer and draw an intricately detailed drawing on top:

Another way to use layers, that I personally use pretty often, is to use them for different stages in your drawing or painting.

Whenever you reach a point in your drawing that you are unsure about, save your document and just create a new layer.

This way you have the opportunity to experiment a bit and try things out. And if it doesn't work out, no problem - you can always go back to the last stage, without destroying your whole artwork.

3. Perspective Grids

When drawing something in perspective, you can do it like I just showed you: Draw individual guides for every object you draw.

Another way is to draw lots of guides beforehand and draw your objects along those lines:
Instead of having to draw hundreds of lines by hand, you can use perspective grids.
Digital painting software makes this easy.

In this case I'm using the free software Krita which has a tool for this. This allows me to put down a horizon line and add as many vanishing points as I want:

And as you can see, it automatically creates many lines to draw along.

This way you can practice drawing basic objects or draw a full scene in perspective quickly.

What To Do Next

Try these different levels out and practice each stage as long until you get sufficiently good at it.
READ NEXT:
How To Get Great At Drawing Fast: The Best Way To Practice
To get as good as the pros, you need to know how to practice right, though. I recommend you watch this video of mine, where I show you five ways to practice drawing that can really accelerate your progress:

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Learn To Draw From Scratch: A Step-By-Step Beginner Guide

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Learn to draw from scratch with this easy step-by-step guide! You'll learn all fundamentals: Lines, Shapes, Forms , Perspective, Construction!

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8/12/21 - By Ally Noel

It's a (fun) fact: kids' brains are like tiny sponges. They love to soak up all the knowledge and fun facts that they can-the sillier and more random fun facts get, the more kids love them. These 75 entertaining fun facts for kids will inspire your budding brainiac to dive deeper into science, history, geography, and more. Whether you use this list to impress your kiddos with your own knowledge of weird fun facts or to keep the whole family entertained on a long car ride, these fun facts are sure to impress (and entertain) the whole family.

If these fun facts leave your kids laughing and you want more, check out these 50 Fun Animal Facts For Kids You Won't Believe. If you're kids prefer to figure out crazy facts for themselves, you can pepper them with these 100 Trivia Questions for Kids. We've also got some silly jokes for kids, and even some dad jokes that are real groaners, to keep your crew chuckling.

You can buy a square watermelon in Japan. Photo courtesy CC BY 2.0

Random Fun Facts for Kids

1. Most people cannot lick their elbows. (Try it!)

2. You cannot sneeze with your eyes open. (Try this, too!)

3. The Olympics used to give medals for art, not just sports.

4. A jar of Nutella is sold every 2.5 seconds.

5. French fries are Belgian, not French.

6. Before alarm clocks, people would pay someone to knock on their window and wake them up. They were called knocker-uppers.

7. Make tea not war! All British armored vehicles have the equipment needed to make tea.

8. There are 31,557,600 seconds in a year.

9. Arithmophobia is the fear of numbers.

10. Speaking of numbers, the opposite sides of a die (one of a pair of dice) will always equal 7.

11. Your nose may not grow like Pinocchio's, but it does get warmer when you tell a lie.

12. Tomatoes and avocados are actually fruits, not vegetables

13. The Queen of England has two birthdays.

14. The number four is the only number to have the same amount of letters as its value.

15. Every human has a unique tongue print. (Like snowflakes, no two are alike!)

16. In your lifetime, you will spend 25 years sleeping. (Unless you have a lot of children...)

17. You cannot smell while you sleep.

18. Brown is the most common eye color.

19. You will get cell phone service on the top of Mount Everest.

20. You can buy a square watermelon in Japan.

21. Newborn babies are colorblind.

RELATED: 40 Jokes For Kids That Will Keep the Whole Family in Giggles

Strawberries have their seeds on the outside.

Fun Facts For Kids About Science

22. People can fart after they die.

23. Also, farts are fast! They travel about 10 feet per second, which is almost 7 mph.

24. But a cough is faster (60 mph) and a sneeze is fastest of all (over 100 mph).

25. Clouds aren't weightless-they can actually be way over a million pounds.

26. Because bananas contain potassium, they are radioactive.

27. Human babies have more bones than adults.

28. Chalk is made up of fossils.

29. The acid in your stomach can dissolve steel.

30. All planets spin counterclockwise except for Venus.

31. Because of gravity, you would weigh less on the moon than on Earth.

32. The human brain cannot feel pain.

33. On average, the human body is made up of 60% water.

34. Plankton, seaweed, and other ocean organisms create over half the world's oxygen.

35. White is not actually a color, but the absence of all colors.

36. Strawberries are the only fruits with their seeds on the outside.

37. When cranberries are ripe, they can bounce like a ball.

38. Wind is actually silent. What we hear is the wind blowing against an object.

39. Contrary to popular belief, lightning can strike twice.

40. The human nose can detect a trillion different scents.

41. Human noses and ears never stop growing.

42. The human heart beats 115,000 times a day.

43. Women's hearts beat faster than men's.

44. Apples are actually a part of the rose family.

45. The planet Neptune's days are 16 hours long.

46. Humans lose about 50-100 hairs a day.

47. Human teeth are as strong as shark teeth!

48. Boys have fewer taste buds than girls.

49. You can still see traces of Neil Armstrong's footprints on the moon.

50. It takes your body about 12 hours to fully digest food.

51. About half of the bones in your body are in your hands and feet.

RELATED: Easy Science Experiments for Kids to Do at Home
You won't believe what the Romans used as mouthwash. Photo courtesy wuestenigel/CC BY 2.0
Weird Fun Facts About History

52. Alexander the Great was buried alive.

53. Cleopatra wasn't Egyptian-she was Greek.

54. The Statue of Liberty was originally supposed to be located in the Suez Canal.

55. Tug of war used to be an Olympic sport.

56. Abraham Lincoln was a champion wrestler.

57. During the Victorian era, it was popular for people to take photographs of their loved ones after they had died.

58. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died hours apart on July 4, 1826.

59. The war between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly lasted 335 years, and not a single person was killed.

60. Romans used urine as mouthwash.

61. Before becoming president, Lincoln lost 5 different elections.

62. Thomas Edison did not invent the lightbulb.

RELATED: Brainy Puzzle Games and Jigsaw Puzzles for Kids

Attention, class! Now for some truly funny fun facts...
Random Fun Facts About Geography

63. Alaska is both the most western and most eastern state in the United States. (We'll wait while you go get that globe.)

64. Greenland is the world's largest island.

65. The English language is spoken in more than 100 countries around the world.

66. Vatican City is the smallest country in the world.

67. Antarctica is the only continent with no permanent human residents.

68. Dust from the Sahara Desert in Africa can travel great distances-even as far as Texas.

69. Maine is the closest state to Africa. (Time to look at the globe again.)

70. The state of California has more people than the entire country of Canada.

71. The Dead Sea is the lowest place on the planet.

72. Istanbul is the only city in the world located on two continents-Europe and Asia.

73. Water covers about 70% of the Earth's surface.

74. Russia is just two miles from Alaska.

75. The Atlantic Ocean is saltier than the Pacific Ocean.

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75 Fun Facts For Kids That Will Blow Their Minds

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These 101 entertaining fun facts for kids will inspire your budding brainiac to dive deeper into science, history, geography, and more.

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Storyboard That: Free Comic Maker for Comics & Strips [2025]

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Storyboard That: Create comics and graphic novels with our free comic maker. Easily make comic strips and unleash your creativity today!

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QR CODE

Scan this on mobiles and tablets to quickly open this web page.

Hit the Button is an interactive maths game with quick fire questions on number bonds, times tables, doubling and halving, multiples, division facts and square numbers. The games, which are against the clock, challenge and develop mental maths skills. An untimed, practise mode is available in our Hit the Button app along with lots more extra features.

The activities can be matched to appropriate mathematical ability. Regular use of Hit the Button can help students to sharpen their recall of vital number facts in a fun way and learning multiplication tables need not be boring.

AGE

6-11 Years

SUBJECTS

Maths Times Tables Division Number Bonds Doubles Halves Square Numbers

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Hit the Button - Quick fire maths practise for 6-11 year olds

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Quick fire questions on number bonds, doubles, halves, times tables, division facts and square numbers against the clock. Superb!

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Flags of the World Quiz - World Geography Games

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Challenge yourself with the hardest multiple-choice flags quiz game, including 197 world flags. Fasten you seatbelts for an adventurous road trip across the world of flags!

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Practice finding common denominators

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Sort multiples on this interactive Carroll Diagram. It is useful for demonstrating how Carroll Diagrams work and for practise in using them. It will challenge a player’s knowledge of the times tables.

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Complete the mystery. You can use this website to help you by searching for what you need https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/primary#england

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Year 5 English Grammar learning resources for adults, children, parents and teachers.