Story retelling is an important and crucial skill for our young students to master as it helps them comprehend, organize, and recall key details from a text. However, many young readers struggle with remembering the sequence of events or the important details of the story.That is why using engaging and interactive strategies can make a huge difference in helping our younger students master this skill. In this post, we will explore ten fun and effective ways to teach retelling, particularly in 1st grade and 2nd grade. These ideas will include hands-on activities to keep your students engaged and learning throughout your entire retelling reading unit.
1. Retell With Picture Cards
Young students often struggle with verbal retelling, especially when just learning about retelling a story. Using picture cards gives them visual support to think through what happened in the text. When reading a story, print or draw key story events on index cards or sticky notes and mix them up. After reading the story, have students put them in the correct order and retell the story using the visuals.
In this example, read The Tortoise and the Hare. Provide the cards for students and this can be done in either whole group, partners, or small groups. Students work together to put the cards in the correct sequential order. Then, they discuss why they placed them in that order. Using these visual supports is a great way to help students organize their thoughts before verbally retelling the story.
2. Act It Out
Let’s face it, we all know our students love the drama (think of all the times they have come in from recess ready to tell you about something that happened!), so acting out stories is a fun way to bring retelling to life! After reading a story together (check out our blog post with a list of stories to read for retelling here), assign different students roles for the main character and have them act out key events.
For example, one student can play the part that happened in the beginning. Another student can play the part in the middle. And another student can play the part in the end. It is not a big production; just a way for them to think more about the story.
Why it works:
- Encourages engagement and movement so they are more likely to remember the story
- Helps visual and kinesthetic learners remember and recall the story
- Reinforces sequencing skills
Want to do this activity but your students are uncomfortable performing in front of the whole class? No big deal! Try acting out small parts in pairs or groups.
3. Play Telephone
This is definitely a silly activity that will get your students laughing! You know the old game, Telephone, right? The game is played by someone starting and whispering a sentence to the person next to them. Then, that person whispers what was said to the next and so on. What makes it so funny is that it usually is not the same thing thing that was said in the beginning! And it usually no longer makes any sense! So, tell a short (very short!) story to one person. Then, have that person retell the story to the next person in the circle. Then, they repeat or retell what that person said to the next person and so on.
4. Use Retelling Cards
Retelling cards provide structured support for students who struggle to remember the details. We have a free set of retelling cards that you can download and use today! The cards include:
- Who is the main character?
- Where did the story take place?
- What was the problem in the story?
- How was the problem solved?
- What happened at the end?
You can use these cards individually, in partners, or in small groups to guide their retelling. Use these cards on the ground in a sequential order and have students hop to each card to add movement to their retelling. Great for kinesthetic and visual learners! The pictures are also great visual aids to help students remember what the different words mean.
5. Use Retelling Puzzles and Pictures
These puzzles provide a short story with four pictures. Students read the story and then piece together the puzzle to help them visually retell the story. Then, they can point to each picture and verbally retell the story in their own words, using the pictures to help them along the way. This is a literacy center included in our Retelling Reading Unit.
6. Retell Stories In A Silly Voice
I love using this little “trick” for various activities and one of those things is retelling stories. Encouraging students to retell a story is a little easier when they get to be silly about it. When your students retell a story verbally, have them retell it in a high-pitched voice. Or, you can use a deep, low voice.
Some other fun ideas:
- Retell the story in a robot voice
- Whisper the story like a detective or secret agent
- Use a monster or fairy voice
- Pretend you are on the phone talking to your boss
This activity keep students engaged while still reinforcing comprehension skills.
7. Retelling Hopscotch
Let’s look at another way to support your kinesthetic learners. You know those free retelling cards you can download? Now you can use them for Retelling Hopscotch! Create a hopscotch board with the story elements cards. As students hop to each square, they must say a part of the story related to that story element. For this activity, you will probably want to laminate those cards! You can make multiple of each so that students can complete these in a group as well.
Want to take your hopscotch outside? Draw it out with sidewalk chalk! Anytime you can take a lesson outside is a win in my book! Students (and you!) get to enjoy the fresh air while soaking up some fun learning activities as well! If it is not a windy day, you could simply use the cards outside (maybe put a rock or two on them so they do not move or blow away). Less work for you and you get to enjoy the sunshine (that is, if the sun is out of course)!
8. Throw And Tell Retelling Ball
Time to blow up the inflatable beach ball! One of my favorite ways to practice retell with students is with the Throw And Tell Retelling Ball. Take an inflatable beach ball and write key retelling prompts all over it. Gather your students in a circle and one student tosses the ball to another student. Wherever their right thumb lands, they must answer that question.
Retelling Prompts To Write:
- What was the main idea?
- Who were the different characters?
- What happened in the end of the story?
- What was the problem in the story?
- How was the problem solved?
- Who was the main character?
- What was the setting of the story?
Talk about a hands-on activity! This can be done with the whole group, but it will work particularly well with small group instruction because then everyone will get a chance to answer a question on the beach ball.
9. Sticky Note Retelling Relay Race
In addition to retelling hopscotch and acting out stories, there is another way to make retelling fun! Try relay races! Write the different parts of the story on sticky notes and place them around the classroom. After reading the story, students race to find the sticky notes and place them in chronological order and stick them onto an anchor chart paper or the whiteboard. Once finished, they must verbally retell the story using their sticky notes as a guide.
10. Use the Story Retelling Rope
A great way for students to organize their thoughts is by using a retelling rope. This simple yet effective tool includes different-colored knots or beads to represent the different parts of a story. To use, students will touch each section as they retell the story, making sure they include all the key details in sequential order. This hands-on method is especially effective for kinesthetic learners who need a tactile way to process information. Use our free retelling cards for your retelling rope too!
Additional Tips For Teaching Retelling Of A Story
Before you go, check out these additional tips for a successful retelling reading unit!
- Model, model, model! Demonstrate retelling multiple times before expecting students to do it independently. You should be modeling both verbally and written so students get ample opportunity to see and hear both.
- Use sentence starters: Provide prompts like First, Next, Then, Last to help students structure and organize their retelling. This will help with graphic organizers as well!
- Encourage thoughtful discussion: Have students share their retelling with partners. Partners can help add details and work together to retell the story.
- Mix up strategies: Make sure to use activities to engage all your learners. Some need visual aids, while others will thrive with movement.
Teaching retelling doesn’t have to be a challenge—it can be fun, engaging, and meaningful for young learners! By incorporating hands-on activities, movement-based games, and visual supports, students gain the confidence to retell stories with ease. Whether they’re acting out a scene, hopping through a retelling hopscotch, or using picture cards, these activities will help students build essential reading comprehension skills that last a lifetime. Try a few of these strategies in your classroom and see how your students respond—you might be surprised by how much they love retelling!
Add Our Retelling Activities To Your Lesson Plans!
Are you ready to take the guesswork out of teaching and planning your retelling activities? Our Retelling Reading Unit provides everything you need like lesson plans, graphic organizers, engaging reading centers and more. These ready-to-use resources will save you time while ensuring your students build strong comprehension skills.
Here’s what is included in our reading unit:
- Retelling and Central Message anchor charts
- 4 detailed lesson plans to help you teach!
- Pre- and post-assessments to assess your students’ knowledge before teaching and after teaching
- Bookmarks for students to use when practicing and identifying the story sequence and main events
- Reading passages for students to practice putting stories in the correct order (includes cut/paste activities)
- 3 retelling centers for students to continue to practice their retelling skills in their center time and small groups
- Graphic organizers and flipbooks for students to use during independent work
- Discussion cards to use in your small groups
Purchase your retelling unit here on Missing Tooth Grins.
Purchase your retelling unit here on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Don’t Forget your Free Download!
Add our free retelling cards to your lesson plans as well! Remember that these are perfect for your visual learners and can be used for hopping to each story element, retelling hopscotch, or just on the board! Enter your name and email below and they will be sent right to your inbox!
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