Kindergarten · English Language Arts · Parent guide
Short answer. RL.K.2 asks kindergarteners to retell a familiar story with the key details in order. What that means for your child, plus easy retelling games for home.
Quick answer
RL.K.2 asks your kindergartener to retell a story he knows well, keeping the important parts and roughly the right order. With help from an adult, he should be able to walk through something like The Three Little Pigs: the pigs build houses, the wolf blows two of them down, the brick house wins. He doesn't need every line, just the pieces that make the story hang together.
Why parents see this skill
Retelling is how kids show they can hold a whole story in their head, not just the last page they heard. It builds the sense of beginning-middle-end that later supports writing stories, summarizing chapter books, and following multi-step directions.
For reference
With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.Official Common Core source
See it, then try it
You do not need a lesson plan. Look for these signs in ordinary play, reading, and conversation, then choose one short activity.
After a read-aloud, hand your child a stuffed animal and say the bear missed the story. Ask him to tell the bear what happened. Retelling to a toy feels like play, not a quiz, and you'll hear exactly which details stuck.
Draw three quick boxes on scrap paper labeled beginning, middle, end. Have your child scribble one small picture in each for a story you both know, then use the pictures to tell it back to you. Stick figures are fine; the order is the point.
While making dinner, start retelling a familiar story and stop after the first event. Say "Your turn." He tells the next part, then passes it back to you. Trade back and forth until the story is done. Takes ten minutes and no materials.
Choose what helps today
Start with the domain guide for context, use the learning library when a concept needs explaining, or print a page when your child is ready to practice.
See every RL.K skill in order and how the codes fit together.
Open resourceFilter free pages by literacy, phonics, handwriting, and comprehension skills.
Open resourceShort, repeatable reading activities for common early words.
Open resourceSimple reading and vocabulary ideas for home and classroom routines.
Open resourceMy child retells stories completely out of order. Should I worry?
Order is one of the last pieces to click, so jumbled retells are normal for much of kindergarten. Help by anchoring with questions like "What happened first?" and by rereading favorites, since kids retell familiar books far better than new ones. If the jumble persists into 1st grade, mention it at conferences.
Does retelling mean memorizing the book word for word?
No, and word-for-word recitation can actually hide weak understanding. Teachers want the story in your child's own words: who was in it, what went wrong, how it ended. A short retell in his own language beats a long memorized one every time.
Keep the sequence
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