This identifying theme activity helps 3rd to 5th grade students match short stories to their themes and back them up with text details. Answer key included.
Students read 12 short fable cards in this determining theme activity for 3rd to 5th Grade, match each to a theme, and cite a detail. Answer key included.
Read, retell and find the moral with this fables and folktales activity for 2nd and 3rd grade: story cards, moral cards, talk cards and a Story Map, with an answer key included.
This story elements activity has kindergarten and 1st grade students hear a short story and match picture cards to its characters, setting, problem and solution. Answer key included.
This comparing themes of two stories activity for 3rd-5th grade turns story pairs into a fun matching game, with a graphic organizer, practice page, and answer key included.
Kids sort story cards with this beginning middle end plot activity for 1st to 3rd grade, then retell the story on a roller coaster plot chart. An answer key is included for easy checking.
This feeling words activity has 1st to 3rd graders read a story, match clue cards to feeling words, and practice naming how characters feel. An answer key is included.
In this describing characters beginning middle and end activity, 1st to 3rd Grade students order story cards and name feelings. Answer key included.
This describe characters and setting activity has kindergarten and 1st grade students sort story clue cards, then draw from describing words. Answer key included.
This identifying literary elements activity has students sort 16 element cards into poem, drama, and prose. Made for 3rd to 5th grade, with a practice page and answer key included.
This determining theme graphic organizers activity helps 3rd to 5th grade students find the lesson in a story, a play and a poem, then practice with fables. Answer key included.
This what's the moral of the story activity helps 2nd and 3rd graders read short fables, retell them, and match each one to its lesson. Answer key included for quick checking.
This character setting plot activity has 1st to 3rd graders read a short story, sort story cards by element, and order the plot. Answer key included for quick checking.
Using this SL.2.4 Common Core Activity , studentstell a story or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences.
This characters sketch activity helps 3rd to 5th Grade readers sort story details by words, actions and thoughts, then name a trait with evidence. Answer key included for quick checking.
Use this key details for comprehension activity with Kindergarten to 3rd grade readers to find characters, setting, problem and solution in a story. Answer key included, so checking work is quick.
This point of view activity has 1st-4th grade students hold up Character or Narrator signs to show who is telling each scene. Fold-over cards check the clue words, and an answer key is included.
This how does the character respond activity for 1st to 3rd grade pairs a read-aloud story with a match game and a reusable organizer. Answer key included.
This finding story elements activity has 3rd to 5th grade partners compare two short stories and sort ten Story Cards as mostly similar or mostly different. Answer key included.
Using My Point of View Activity, students distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters.
Who, where, what happened, and why
Every story has the same building blocks: characters (who it's about), setting (where and when it happens), plot (the events, from beginning to middle to end), a problem and a solution. Young kids name the characters and setting and retell what happened in order. By 2nd and 3rd grade they describe how characters respond to big events and identify the problem and solution. Older kids look at point of view, how characters change, and the theme, the lesson a story teaches. The click is when a child finishes a book and says, "The problem was... and she solved it by..." without any prompting.
Kids already love stories. These moves help them see how stories are built.
After a read-aloud, fill in a story map together: characters, setting, problem, events and solution. Then hand kids a blank map for the next book. A graphic organizer makes the invisible structure of a story easy to see.
Why it works: children learn more from words and pictures together than from words alone (Mayer, 2009).
Try it withStory Map Graphic OrganizerGraphic OrganizersOpen it →Stop mid-story and think aloud: "Who is this about? Where are we? What just went wrong?" Then ask the same questions after the next chapter and let kids answer. Soon they're asking themselves while they read.
Why it works: showing first, practicing together, then letting kids try alone is the "gradual release" model teachers have relied on for decades (Pearson and Gallagher, 1983).
Try it withWho What When Where Why Graphic Organizer WorksheetWorksheetsOpen it →Put character, setting and problem cards into three bags. Kids pull one from each and write or tell a story that uses all three. Building a story from the parts shows kids exactly what each element does.
Why it works: kids understand an idea best when they touch it, then draw it, then write it, the order the U.S. Department of Education recommends for elementary math.
Try it withFictional Narrative WorksheetWorksheetsOpen it →Story elements come alive when kids get to create and perform.
WorksheetsKids pick a fairy tale and change one element, like the setting, then retell it. Cinderella in space, anyone?
Open Fairy Tales Elements Worksheet →
WorksheetsPut picture cards in order and retell the story using first, next, then and last.
Open Sequencing Pictures Worksheet →
ActivitiesRead a short tale and decide what lesson it teaches, then find a story with the same theme.
Open Identifying Theme Activity →Teacher favorites right now: Identifying Theme Activity, Determining Theme Activity and Fables and Folktales Activity.
The five main story elements are characters, setting, plot, conflict (the problem) and resolution (the solution). Many teachers add theme as a sixth.
Plot is what happens in the story. Theme is the lesson or message the story teaches, like kindness matters or never give up.
Kindergarten and 1st grade students identify characters, setting and major events. Second and 3rd graders add problem and solution, and 4th and 5th graders study theme, point of view and how characters change.
After reading or watching a movie together, ask: Who was in it? Where did it happen? What was the problem? How was it solved? Those four questions cover the basics.
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