Year 2 The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark: reading worksheet

“Reading the Opening of a Story” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 2 English unit “The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark: reading”, for children aged 6 to 7, and takes about 20 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 28 to 29 of the year, 4 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Reading the Opening of a Story

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 2 · English · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can find who is in a story and where it happens.

A Look back3 min

1.
Stories have three main parts, in order. Circle the word for the empty box.
middlecolournumber
2.
Every sentence starts with something special. Circle what goes in the empty box.
capital letterfull stopquestion mark
3.
Each question helps us read a story. Which question asks about a place? Circle it for the empty box.
Where?When?Why?

B Watch me, then you4 min

The opening is the first part of a story. It tells us who is in it and where it happens.

A busy town street with a small shop and a window above it

Watch me

The opening is the very start of a story.

Mia and Biscuit live above a shop in a busy town.

Who is in it? Mia and Biscuit.

Where does it happen? Above a shop in a busy town.

Now you

1.
Tom and Gran live by the sea in a small blue house. Who is the main character? Circle one.
Tomthe seaa small blue house

C Your turn7 min

Read each opening, then answer.

1.
Nell wakes up early. She feeds her hen in the barn. Where does this happen? Circle one.
Nellthe barnwakes up
2.
Zara and her cat Moth live in a flat above a bakery. Where does this happen? Circle one.
a flat above a bakerya dark cavea big ship
3.
Leo and his dog Rex walk to the beach every morning. Write each card in the right column.
Leothe beachRexevery morning
Who Where and when
4.
These are the opening sentences of a story. Number the boxes in the order the story goes.
1. One night, the power went out with a bang.
2. Ravi and his gran live in a flat by the park.
3. They have a small green boat on the river.

Say it out loud: Which words told you who? Which told you where? What changed from the last row?

D Spot the mistake3 min

A barn owl asleep on a branch in daylight with its eyes closed

Kit says: “Barn owls sleep at night and hunt in the day.”

1.
What is the right fact? Write it.

E Think deeper4 min

A barn owl perched high in a tree as the sky turns dark blue at dusk

1.
Plop is a baby barn owl who is scared of the dark. Why is this a big problem for an owl? Explain in two sentences.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Reading the Opening of a Story · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. middle your child circled a word that is not a story part. Point to the boxes and ask which part comes between the first and last.

2. capital letter your child may have picked the full stop. Ask which sign goes at the very start of the first word.

3. Where? your child chose When? or Why? Ask which question is about a place.

B

1. Tom your child chose the house or the sea, which are places or things. Ask who the sentence is about first.

C

1. the barn your child chose Nell, who is a person, not a place. Ask which word names the place where she feeds her hen.

2. a flat above a bakery your child chose a cave or a ship. Read the sentence again and find the words that say where Zara lives.

3. Who: Leo, Rex · Where and when: the beach, every morning your child put the beach in the Who column. Ask whether the card names a person or an animal, or a place or time.

4. 1 Ravi and his gran live in a flat by the park. · 2 They have a small green boat on the river. · 3 One night, the power went out with a bang. your child put the hook sentence first. Ask which sentence tells us who and where, and read that one first.

D

1. Look for: barn owls sleep in the day and hunt at night your child may have mixed up owl sleeping times. Ask: when do owls wake up and go out to hunt for mice?

E

1. Look for: says owls hunt at night, so the dark is when Plop must go out to find food

Words to use

Say“Who is in each opening, and where does it happen? Why is it a big problem for Plop to be scared of the dark?”

Instead of“Read the whole book to them first, then ask them to remember it.”

After the sheet

At home, read the first page of any storybook together. Ask who it is about and where it happens, then draw the place on scrap paper.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

3 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Character, setting and plot(with a plan)
Detectives in the Story(with a plan)
Brave, curious and thinking(with a plan)

Every Year 2 English worksheet

The worksheets plan opens a printable sheet for every lesson in Years 1 to 6, each with its answers on a separate page for you. It costs £6.99 a month or £59 a year for the whole family, with no free trial.

The full StudyDen plan adds the lessons themselves, marked as your child works, with the worksheets included. It is 7 days free, then £29.99 a month.

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