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How a Story Begins and Ends

A 40-minute Grade 2 lesson on the overall structure of a story: what a beginning introduces and what an ending concludes.

How a Story Begins and Ends is a free 40-minute Grade 2 English lesson plan for Common Core standard RL.2.5 — describe how a story opens and how it closes. It is timed across 5 sections, gives the exact wording to use where the wording carries the meaning, names 3 misconceptions with the teaching move that addresses each, and ends with an exit ticket and a printable worksheet with its answer key.

Grade:
Grade 2
Length:
40 minutes
Standard:
RL.2.5

Grade 2 · Reading: Literature

RL.2.5

Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.

Objective

Students will be able to describe what a story's beginning introduces (characters, setting, problem) and how its ending concludes the problem.

Students are successful when they can

  • Names what the beginning tells us: who, where and the problem.
  • Explains how the ending solves the problem from the beginning.
  • Puts the main events of a story in order: beginning, middle, end.

What you need

  • The story "The Crow and the Pitcher" retold on chart paper (in the Teach section)
  • A story mountain drawing: beginning, middle, end
  • Event strips from the story, cut up
  • The printable practice sheet linked at the end of this plan

The lesson

Warm-up — what's missing?

5 min
  1. Tell a story with no beginning: "And then she climbed out of the window and ran home." Ask: "Who? Where? Why?"
  2. Tell one with no ending: "Once upon a time, a girl got locked in a tower..." and stop. Ask how that feels. ("I want to know what happened!")
  3. Say that beginnings and endings each have a job.

Teach — the story mountain

13 min
  1. Read: "The Crow and the Pitcher. On a hot summer day, a thirsty crow flew over a dry field. She found a pitcher with a little water at the bottom, but her beak could not reach it. She tried tipping the pitcher, but it was too heavy. Then she had an idea. She picked up a pebble and dropped it in. Then another, and another. Slowly the water rose. At last the crow could drink. She flew away, happy and cool."
  2. Draw the story mountain. Beginning: ask "What does the beginning tell us?" Who (a crow), where (a dry field), when (a hot summer day), the problem (she cannot reach the water).
  3. Middle: what she tries — tipping the pitcher, then dropping pebbles. Write these on the climb up the mountain.
  4. End: "At last the crow could drink." Ask: "How does this ending connect to the beginning?" Fish for "it solves the problem — she was thirsty and now she can drink."
  5. Point to the last sentence: "She flew away, happy and cool." Ask: "How is she different from the start?" (Hot and thirsty, now happy and cool.) The ending mirrors the beginning.
“The beginning sets up the problem. The ending solves it. Look at the start and the end together — they should match like a question and an answer.”

Guided practice — order the strips

12 min
  1. Give pairs six event strips from "The Lion and the Mouse," mixed up: "A mouse woke a sleeping lion." "The lion let the mouse go." "The lion was caught in a net." "The mouse heard him roar." "She chewed through the ropes." "The lion thanked the mouse."
  2. Pairs put the strips in order and place them on a story mountain: beginning (strips 1-2), middle (3-5), end (6).
  3. Ask: "What is the problem in the middle?" (The lion is trapped.) "How does the ending connect to the beginning?" (The mouse who was let go now helps the lion.)
  4. Share. Check that every pair put "The lion let the mouse go" before the net.
“Check the order: could this happen before that one?”

Independent practice

8 min
  1. Students complete the printable. One sheet asks what the beginning of a story sets up; the other asks them to number the events of a story in the right order.
  2. Remind them to find the problem first; it is usually in the beginning.

Close

2 min
  1. Read only the first sentence of a new story: "Ben's puppy had run away." Ask: "What should the ending do?" (Find the puppy, or tell us what happened.)

What goes wrong, and why

Each of these is a reasoning error rather than carelessness. The fix addresses the reasoning.

Says the beginning is "Once upon a time" and the ending is "The end."

Why: These phrases mark the edges of stories, so they think the words themselves are the beginning and ending.

Fix: Ask: "What did we learn in the beginning?" Point to who, where and the problem. The job matters, not the phrase.

Names the most exciting event as the ending: "The ending is when she dropped the pebbles."

Why: The exciting middle feels like the climax and the most important part, so it is remembered as where the story finishes.

Fix: Ask: "Was she still thirsty then? When was the problem solved?" The ending is when the problem is fixed.

Cannot link the ending back to the beginning.

Why: They see a story as a line of events, not as a problem that is set up and then answered.

Fix: Put the first and last sentences side by side and ask: "What changed?" Thirsty to drinking, hot to cool.

If they are not there yet

  • Give three picture cards (beginning, middle, end) to order rather than six strips.
  • Use a story mountain with question prompts on each part: Who? Where? Problem? How fixed?
  • Read the beginning and the ending aloud together and ask "What changed?"

If they finish early

  • Write a new ending for "The Crow and the Pitcher" that still solves the problem in a different way.
  • Write a beginning for a story that sets up a problem, and swap with a partner to write the ending.
  • Compare the endings of two fables and explain which one connects back to its beginning more clearly.

Exit ticket

Beginning: "Rosa lost her library book on Monday." Write an ending that concludes the story. What does your ending solve?

What to look for: An ending that finds or replaces the book and says so: "On Friday she found it under her bed." "The end" or an unrelated ending: does not link ending to problem yet. A middle event ("She looked in the car") with no resolution: needs the question-and-answer idea again.

Printable practice for RL.2.5

Free to print and copy, answer key included. Each sheet can generate a fresh set of problems for a retake.

Questions about How a Story Begins and Ends

How long does the How a Story Begins and Ends lesson take?

40 minutes, split across 5 timed sections: warm-up 5 min, teach 13 min, guided practice 12 min, independent practice 8 min, close 2 min. The minutes are stated per section and add up to the stated length, so the plan can be cut or extended at a section boundary rather than abandoned halfway.

Which standard does How a Story Begins and Ends teach?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.5 — RL.2.5, Reading: Literature for Grade 2: “Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.” In plain terms, describe how a story opens and how it closes.

What do I need to teach this lesson?

The story "The Crow and the Pitcher" retold on chart paper (in the Teach section), a story mountain drawing: beginning, middle, end, event strips from the story, cut up and the printable practice sheet linked at the end of this plan. Everything listed is either ordinary classroom equipment or a free printable from this site — there is nothing to buy and nothing to prepare beyond photocopying.

What mistakes should I expect in this lesson?

Three, each a reasoning error rather than carelessness: says the beginning is "Once upon a time" and the ending is "The end."; names the most exciting event as the ending: "The ending is when she dropped the pebbles." and cannot link the ending back to the beginning. The plan gives the thinking behind each one and the teaching move that addresses the thinking rather than the symptom.

How do I know whether the lesson worked?

The exit ticket asks: “Beginning: "Rosa lost her library book on Monday." Write an ending that concludes the story. What does your ending solve?.” An ending that finds or replaces the book and says so: "On Friday she found it under her bed." "The end" or an unrelated ending: does not link ending to problem yet. A middle event ("She looked in the car") with no resolution: needs the question-and-answer idea again. That tells you whether the class needs a reteach or a thirty-second conversation before you plan tomorrow.

Is there a worksheet to go with How a Story Begins and Ends?

Yes — 1 printable RL.2.5 worksheet, linked at the end of the plan and free like the rest of the site. Each one comes with an answer key and 25 versions, so the practice after the lesson can be a different paper on every desk.

Is How a Story Begins and Ends free to use?

Yes. The plan, its printables and their answer keys are free to read, print and photocopy for your own class, with no account and no email capture. It was last reviewed on October 8, 2026. Please do not resell it or republish it as your own.

Last reviewed 2026-10-08. Aligned to RL.2.5 of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.