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Retelling and finding the main idea
Can do: Retells a story with beginning, middle and end, and answers who / what / where / why questions about it.
Why it matters
The point of reading is meaning. Retelling in order is how a teacher checks that the words became a picture in the child's head.
What it looks like when it's wobbly
Retells the first page in enormous detail and then says "and then it finished", or answers with something from their own life instead of the book.
⏱️ Two-minute check
After reading: "Tell me what happened, from the start." Then one why question.
Solid looks like: Three events in order, plus an answer to the why that comes from the text.
The full activity for this topic · 10 minutes
Five Finger Retell
- 1Hold up five fingers: who, where, problem, what happened, how it ended.
- 2They fold one finger down per part as they say it.
- 3For anything they miss, go back and find that page together rather than telling them.
- 4Ask one why question — "why did she hide the letter?" — and make them point at the evidence.
- 5Do it in the car later with no book. Retelling from memory is the harder, better version.
If it's too hard
Three fingers only: who, what happened, how it ended.
If it's too easy
Ask for the lesson or message of the story, which is a Grade 2 skill worth previewing.
Say this
"Show me the bit in the book that tells you that. If it's not in there, it's a guess."