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Explaining & retelling

Year 1 · Speaking & listening

Put events in order, retell them aloud and help someone understand what happened.

Choose a game

Take your time, try a game and collect stars.

Activities to try together away from the screen

Explain a familiar task

Give someone the information they need.

  1. Choose a task the child knows, such as preparing a school bag. Ask them to explain how to do it.
  2. Follow their instructions literally but kindly. If a step is missing, ask a question that helps them notice it.
  3. Let them revise the explanation. Notice useful details and a clear sequence rather than a memorised script.

Retell with three objects

Use simple prompts to support a spoken story.

  1. Choose three objects that remind you of a familiar story or a shared event.
  2. Let the child use them to describe the beginning, an important event and the ending.
  3. Listen without interrupting every sentence. Afterwards ask one question about a part that needs more explanation.

Helping your child with explaining & retelling

Retelling is a meaning-making activity

A child retelling an event chooses what matters and puts it into an order a listener can follow. They do not need to repeat every original sentence. Familiar stories and everyday experiences provide useful starting points because the child can concentrate on communicating rather than remembering unfamiliar details.

The ordering activity provides a small scaffold. It checks a prepared sequence, then asks the child to supply the actual spoken explanation. Read the event cards aloud if decoding would get in the way. The quality of the retelling is something to discuss together; the website does not analyse or score a child’s speech.

Helping an explanation become clearer

A helpful explanation usually tells the listener what is happening and gives enough detail to follow it. Model connective words such as first, next and finally without insisting that every account use the same formula. Ask why a step belongs in a particular place and allow the child to change their mind.

Year 1 work in this area connects both to comprehension of familiar stories and to the spoken-language expectations shared across primary school. Keep the emphasis on the listener understanding the message. A short, clear account of a real experience is a valuable outcome even when the child’s sentences are still developing.

Curriculum connection

These activities connect to the spoken-language requirements shared across Years 1–6, with tasks chosen for younger learners. Rhymes and retelling also support discussion of familiar reading. Read the official English programme of study.

Questions families ask

Is the spoken retelling assessed automatically?

No. The page checks the order of prepared event cards. A grown-up listens to the retelling; no microphone or speech analysis is used.

What if my child tells a different sensible story?

Discuss whether the sequence makes sense. The on-page activity has a prepared answer, but imaginative oral storytelling can have many valid versions.