Describe the Key Details is a free printable Grade 2 English worksheet on describing details from something presented orally, aligned to Common Core standard SL.2.2. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two pupils in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.
Set 1 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.
When a boat is in trouble, a call goes out to the lifeboat station.
Pagers sound. The crew are volunteers, so they stop whatever they are doing and drive to the station. Most arrive within six minutes.
They pull on drysuits and lifejackets and climb aboard. The boat slides down a ramp into the sea and the engines start.
At sea, the crew look for a flare, a light, or a shape in the water. Once they find the boat, they take the people off first and the boat second.
A lifeboat can right itself if a wave rolls it over.
1. Who crews the lifeboat?
2. How long do most of the crew take to reach the station?
3. Summarise this text in one sentence.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.
How a Polar Bear Stays Warm
A polar bear lives where the sea freezes. It has three ways of keeping its heat in.
Under its skin is a layer of fat up to eleven centimetres thick. Fat is a poor conductor, so heat does not pass through it easily.
Above that is dense underfur, packed tight so cold water cannot reach the skin.
On top are long guard hairs. Each one is hollow and clear, not white. They look white because they scatter the light, the way snow does.
A polar bear is so well insulated that it can overheat if it runs too far.
1. How thick can a polar bear's fat layer be?
2. Summarise this text in one sentence.
3. What is under the guard hairs?
LessonPrint · SL.2.2 · Set 1 · free to copy for classroom use
Answer key — Describe the Key Details
Set 1. Prints on its own sheet.
1.1. Volunteers. 2. Within six minutes. 3. A pager call brings volunteers to the station, they suit up, launch down a ramp and take the people off a boat in trouble.
2.1. Up to eleven centimetres. 2. A polar bear keeps warm with thick fat, dense underfur and hollow guard hairs, and is so well insulated it can overheat. 3. Dense underfur, packed tight.
Questions about Describe the Key Details
What does the Describe the Key Details worksheet cover?
It practises describing details from something presented orally — 2 questions for Grade 2, all on Common Core SL.2.2: Retell the key ideas of something you listened to. The instruction to pupils is “Read the text, then answer the questions”, and the answer key follows on the next sheet.
Which Common Core standard does Describe the Key Details practise?
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.2 — SL.2.2, in the Speaking & Listening domain for Grade 2. The published standard reads: “Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.” The worksheet assesses that standard rather than a paraphrase of it.
What age or grade is this worksheet for?
Describe the Key Details is written for Grade 2, typically ages 7-8. It is one of the sheets on SL.2.2, so it suits any pupil working at that standard — including older pupils revisiting it and younger ones working ahead.
Does Describe the Key Details come with an answer key?
Yes. All 2 answers are generated from the same problems as the questions, so the key cannot drift out of step with the sheet. It starts on a fresh sheet of paper, after the questions, so it is not handed out with the class by accident.
How many different versions of Describe the Key Details can I print?
25 — one per pupil, and all 25 ask different questions. Set 1 downloads the whole class as a single PDF. Every version is fixed to its own address, so a sheet printed today holds the same problems when you reopen it next week.
Is Describe the Key Details free to print and photocopy?
Yes. Describe the Key Details, its answer key and its 25 versions are free to print and photocopy for your own class, with no account, no email capture and no subscription at the download step. Please do not resell them or republish them as your own.
More practice for SL.2.2
Retell the key ideas of something you listened to.