Recount What You Heard is a free printable Grade 2 English worksheet on retelling the key ideas of a text read aloud, aligned to Common Core standard SL.2.2. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 23 of them with 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 5 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

One paper per pupil

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. 23 of these 25 sets ask different questions — this skill does not have 25 questions to give. The rest reorder them, so no two pupils have the same paper in front of them.

Recount What You Heard

SL.2.2

NameDate

Read the story, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Bread That Would Not Rise

Nana let Ada make the bread on her own for the first time. Ada measured the flour, the salt and the water. She kneaded the dough until her arms ached. Then she covered the bowl and waited. An hour later the dough sat in the bowl exactly as she had left it. It had not risen at all. Nana looked at the packet on the shelf. "You used the salt twice," she said. "There is no yeast in it." Ada wanted to throw the bowl across the kitchen. Instead she washed it out and started again.

1. What happened after Ada covered the bowl?
2. Recount this story with its key details.

2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Lion and the Mouse

A lion lay sleeping in the sun. A mouse ran across his paw and woke him. The lion caught the mouse in one hand. "Please let me go," said the mouse. "One day I may help you." The lion laughed. How could a mouse help a lion? But he opened his hand. Weeks later the lion walked into a hunter's net. He roared and pulled, and the ropes only tightened. The mouse heard him. She came at once and gnawed the ropes, one strand at a time, until the lion could step free.

1. What happened between the lion letting the mouse go and the mouse gnawing the ropes?
2. Recount this fable and give its moral.

LessonPrint · SL.2.2 · Set 5 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Recount What You Heard

Set 5. Prints on its own sheet.

1.1. She waited an hour, and the dough had not risen at all. 2. Ada made bread alone, used salt twice instead of yeast, the dough did not rise, and she started again.
2.1. Weeks passed and the lion walked into a hunter's net. 2. A lion spared a mouse, and later the mouse gnawed him free of a hunter's net — a small friend can do what strength cannot.

More practice for SL.2.2

Retell the key ideas of something you listened to.

Teaching this next? Recounting What You Heard is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 2 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to SL.2.2 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.