Free Story Elements Graphic Organizers and Worksheets for Kids

Understanding story elements is a great way to help students improve their reading comprehension. Reading comprehension is vital in reading development. It is beneficial for students to have a good grasp of story elements from a young age. Teaching with story elements graphic organizers in Kindergarten really helps students focus on characters, setting, BME (beginning, middle, and end), conflict, and resolution. Introducing these concepts early on will help students grow as readers. They will put these building blocks together to better understand the plot, theme, main idea, author’s purpose, and more.

Story elements anchor chart for characters, setting and major event.

Story Elements Anchor Charts

There are so many ways to teach story elements, but I always find that students show the highest level of interest and success when they are hands-on and interacting with the story. We love to use story elements graphic organizers, hands-on worksheets, songs, and anchor charts. When using anchor charts, we work together to create big ones as a class but we also use smaller versions for reference around the room once the large ones come down.

* Note that the story used in each of these anchor charts is The Princess and the Frog. They will go perfectly with the FREE resource below. *

Story Elements Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers are another great visual for students to record their findings from the stories they read. I love this flappy foldable because it can be used for any story and it shows student understanding of the text. Bonus: It is fun to create and complete!

Story Elements Songs

I also love teaching through music. I created three short songs to help my students remember how to find the setting, characters, conflict, and resolution in a story. They learn the songs quickly and they help as a quick mental reference. These songs, as well as numerous other materials including short story passages, can be found in my story elements resource. This resource has everything you need to get your little ones engaged in the key elements of a story.