At this grade level, stories are fairly basic, but here are some ideas to help point your child in the right direction.

Ask your child questions such as:
- Who are the main/important characters in the story?
- Where and when did the story happen?
- What was the 'problem' for the main character(s) in the story?
- Why did this problem happen?
- How did they solve the problem?

Using these questions help give your child and idea of beginning, middle and ending, something they need to appreciate in every story.

After asking these questions and chatting about the story, ask your child to sum up what happened in the story to see if he/she can tell you the relevant details and eliminate the less important items.  Sometimes I tell kids to give me this answer in 1-3 sentences (depending on length of story).  This helps them decide what would be really important to share and what wasn’t so important.