Skip to content
LessonPrint

How a Story Opens is a free printable Grade 2 English worksheet on what the beginning of a story sets up, aligned to Common Core standard RL.2.5. 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 13 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

Next setLesson plan

One paper per pupil

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425

Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

How a Story Opens

RL.2.5

NameDate

Read the story, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

What the Tide Left

Every low tide, Grandad and Tess walked out to the rock pools. Tess wanted to take a starfish home. Grandad said no. "It would die in a bucket," he said. "Look at it here instead." Tess crouched for a long time. She saw the starfish move — slowly, on hundreds of tiny feet she had not known it had. She did not ask again. On the way back she said, "It's better in the pool anyway."

  1. 1. How does the beginning set up the story?
  2. 2. How does the ending conclude the action?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Fog Morning

The hill has gone. The wood has gone. The postbox stands in a cloud, alone. No sheep, no gate, no crooked tree — only the ten short steps I see. I walk. The ten steps walk with me. The gate appears. And then the tree. The hill comes back. The wood comes back. The fog rolls off along the track.

  1. 1. How is the last verse the opposite of the first?
  2. 2. How many verses does this poem have?

LessonPrint · RL.2.5 · Set 13 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — How a Story Opens

Set 13. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. It establishes the regular walk to the rock pools, so the starfish moment stands out. 2. Tess says the starfish is better in the pool, so she has changed her own mind.
  2. 2.1. The first says the hill and wood have gone; the last says they come back. 2. Four verses.

More practice for RL.2.5

Describe how a story opens and how it closes.

Teaching this next? How a Story Begins and Ends is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 2 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RL.2.5 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.