The Very Cranky Bear: Summarising is a purposeful activity designed to accompany a whole class reading of the picture book The Very Cranky Bear by Nick Bland. These no-prep comprehension worksheets will allow you to check your students’ ability to summarise a familiar story.

After reading the text, students will identify and record the key elements of the story, including the main characters, setting, and plot. This supports students in developing the essential skill of summarising — learning to retell a story clearly and concisely in their own words.

The Very Cranky Bear: Summarising offers multiple worksheet options to suit a range of learning needs. Whether through drawing, writing with prompts, or combining both, this activity can be easily differentiated to support your students’ understanding and expression of the story.

This task is perfect for independent work, small group activities, scribing, assessment evidence, or your relief folder. It’s a flexible and engaging way to support comprehension and oral and written language development.

Key Learning Outcomes:

• ✅ Summarise key elements of a narrative text
• ✅ Identify main characters, setting, and plot
• ✅ Practise drawing and writing to communicate comprehension
• ✅ Build oral and written retelling skills
• ✅ Promote flexible thinking and engagement with text

What’s Included:

• Drawing a picture that summarises what the story was about
• Drawing and using a sentence prompt to write a summary of what the story was about (24mm lines)
• Drawing and using a sentence prompt to write a summary of what the story was about (18mm lines)

Materials Needed:

• Printed The Very Cranky Bear: Summarising worksheets
• Pencils, crayons, markers

How to Use:

1. Read The Very Cranky Bear with your class.
2. Discuss the key story elements — characters, setting, and plot.
3. Choose the worksheet option that best suits your students.
4. Students complete the worksheet by drawing and/or writing a clear summary of the story.
5. Encourage students to share their summaries with a partner or the class to reinforce oral retelling.

Ideas for Classroom Use:

• 💡 Use as an independent comprehension task after reading The Very Cranky Bear.
• 💡 Include in a literacy rotation for summarising practise.
• 💡 Use for assessment evidence of comprehension and summarising skills.
• 💡 Add to a relief folder as a no-prep literacy activity linked to a familiar text.

Top Teacher Tips:

• 💛 Enlarge worksheets to A3 for Early Years and Foundation students to provide more space for drawing and writing.
• 💛 Model how to summarise the story using key elements before students begin the activity.
• 💛 Use sentence starters to support students who need extra scaffolding with writing their summaries.
• 💛 Display student summaries in the classroom to celebrate comprehension and writing achievements.

The Very Cranky Bear: Summarising is a flexible and engaging way to build comprehension, text structure understanding, and oral and written language skills. It’s the perfect companion to your literacy unit on this much-loved text!

Check out more amazing resources related to The Very Cranky Bear in our The Very Cranky Bear PACKAGE.

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