1st and 2nd Grade Summarize and Retell Resources

Use the templates to assemble and stage a puppet show based on the story.

Help students build key reading comprehension skills by creating a story map for a book that they read. Students practice retelling, identifying characters, and making connections.

Help the Smith family summarize their family vacation with a main idea, details, and a conclusion. Kids will work on reading comprehension and summarizing.

The class watched an exciting movie about a castle adventure. But now the students need help recalling the details of the film.

Make sequencing stories more interesting than just beginning, middle, and end! This "handy" graphic organizer can be used with all fiction to help set up a concise but thorough summary using a five finger strategy.

Tuck this chapter summary chart into reading workshop folders to help students keep track of longer chapter books. When they finish the book, have them look back at this to create a whole-book summary!

After independent reading, have students record and reflect. Young readers will demonstrate their ability to summarize and respond to their reading, and a log is a fun way for them to track their progress. Make copies of this log to use again and again!

Use this fairy tale story map to follow the details of your child's favorite stories and strengthen his reading skills.

Help your students retell a simple fictional text using a paragraph frame for support! In this activity, students will read a short story about a family's camping trip and then summarize it by filling in the blanks.

Stretch student understanding of story sequencing into a summary with this graphic organizer. Students will start by jotting down quick notes to remember each part of the story, then they'll use their notes to write a complete summary of the text.

Provide your students support as they work on improving their reading comprehension skills by creating a nonfiction text summary.

Engage students in reading by having them share books with peers. Students prepare for giving a book talk in which they'll describe what happens in the book, their favorite part, and whether or not they would recommend the book to a friend.

This open-ended reading reflection journal helps students to think about the books they've read.

The "Somebody Wanted But So Then" reading strategy is a great way to help kids identify the key elements of a story. Students will use this easy format to begin summarizing a story of your choice in this fun treasure map-themed worksheet!

Ask your students to read the story about Ty's birthday, then answer the comprehension questions by retelling main events of the story on the lines provided.

Summarizing stories has never tasted so good! Students can use this yummy ice cream-themed graphic organizer to form short summaries of fiction they read independently or with the class.

Give your students a chance to strengthen their reading comprehension skills by identifying the main topic and supporting details in a nonfiction text.

Then what happened? In this activity, students will choose stop and jot sticky notes from different parts of the story to practice their sequencing and summarizing skills as they respond to questions about the literature.

Use this worksheet to give your students confidence in reading nonfiction texts by familiarizing them with visual elements like diagrams, photographs, illustrations, and charts.

Use this paragraph frame worksheet to support ELs as they navigate through the process of retelling text using transition words. This template can be used as a scaffold for any fictional text in the classroom!

Everyone's heard the story of the ugly duckling, but have you met his new friend, the beastly bird? Help students learn about the importance of transition words when telling a story with this fun tale of outcasts who become fast friends!

Help your child comprehend his reading better by using this graphic organizer. Help him fill out the story map for The Three Little Pigs.