Skip to content
LessonPrint

Retelling a Familiar Story

A 30-minute Kindergarten lesson on retelling a story with its key parts, using pictures to hold the order.

Retelling a Familiar Story is a free 30-minute Kindergarten English lesson plan for Common Core standard RL.K.2 — retell a well-known story in your own words, keeping the important parts. It is timed across 5 sections, gives the exact wording to use where the wording carries the mathematics, 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:
Kindergarten
Length:
30 minutes
Standard:
RL.K.2

Kindergarten · Reading: Literature

RL.K.2

With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.

Objective

Students will be able to retell a familiar story in order, keeping the parts that matter.

Students are successful when they can

  • Tells the beginning, the middle and the end in that order.
  • Includes the part the story would not work without.
  • Leaves out details that do not matter.

What you need

  • A story the class already knows well
  • Four large pictures from it, out of order
  • The printable practice sheet linked at the end of this plan

The lesson

Warm-up — the wrong order

4 min
  1. Retell the story with the middle and the end swapped.
  2. Do not signal that anything is wrong. Wait for them to object.
  3. Ask what went wrong. Fix it together.

Teach — what has to stay in

10 min
  1. Put the four pictures up in the right order and retell it, one picture at a time.
  2. Now retell it again and leave out picture three. Ask whether it still works.
  3. Then retell it and leave out a small detail — the colour of something. Ask whether it still works.
  4. Name the difference: some parts you cannot take out, and some you can.
“If you take that bit out, does the story still make sense? If it does not, that part has to stay in.”

Guided practice — retell to a partner

8 min
  1. Pairs retell the story to each other using the pictures.
  2. The listener's job is to say 'you missed a bit' if a picture was skipped.
  3. Then take the pictures away and have them retell it again.

Independent practice

6 min
  1. Students complete the retelling page, numbering the events into order.
  2. Read the story aloud once more before they start.

Close

2 min
  1. One child retells the whole story in three sentences.
  2. Three, not thirty. The compression is the point.

What goes wrong, and why

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

Retells only the ending, or only the most exciting part.

Why: That is the part that stayed with them. Retelling and remembering are not the same task, and nobody has said so.

Fix: Use the four pictures as a track and require one sentence per picture. The structure supplies what memory does not.

Retells everything, including which colour the door was, and never finishes.

Why: Without a rule for what matters, everything matters equally.

Fix: Do the take-it-out test aloud together. Remove a detail, ask whether the story still works, and let them hear that it does.

Gets the order right but cannot say what the story was about.

Why: Sequencing and meaning are different skills, and the pictures support the first without touching the second.

Fix: After the retelling, ask 'and what was that story trying to tell us?' as a separate question, every time.

If they are not there yet

  • Retell with the pictures in front of them for as long as they need. Taking the pictures away is a separate step, not a requirement.
  • Give the first sentence and let them continue.

If they finish early

  • Retell from the point of view of a different character.
  • Retell it in exactly three sentences.
  • Ask what would change if picture two had gone differently.

Exit ticket

Tell me the story in three sentences: what happened first, next and last.

What to look for: Three sentences that hold the shape. A child who gives one sentence about the ending needs the picture track again.

Printable practice for RL.K.2

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

Questions about Retelling a Familiar Story

How long does the Retelling a Familiar Story lesson take?

30 minutes, split across 5 timed sections: warm-up 4 min, teach 10 min, guided practice 8 min, independent practice 6 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 Retelling a Familiar Story teach?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.2 — RL.K.2, Reading: Literature for Kindergarten: “With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.” In plain terms, retell a well-known story in your own words, keeping the important parts.

What do I need to teach this lesson?

A story the class already knows well, four large pictures from it, out of order 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: retells only the ending, or only the most exciting part; retells everything, including which colour the door was, and never finishes and gets the order right but cannot say what the story was about. 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: “Tell me the story in three sentences: what happened first, next and last.” Three sentences that hold the shape. A child who gives one sentence about the ending needs the picture track 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 Retelling a Familiar Story?

Yes — 1 printable RL.K.2 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 Retelling a Familiar Story 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 7 September 2026. Please do not resell it or republish it as your own.

Last reviewed 2026-09-07. Aligned to RL.K.2 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.