Summarizing Strips and Bracelets

I’ve got one more summarizing idea to share with you!  Did you see my other posts about writing summaries HERE and HERE?

Have you read Picture Day Perfection by Deborah Diesen?  It’s an absolutely perfect and silly story that your students will LOVE!  It’s about a little boy who does everything in his power to have a completely disastrous school photo!  After reading the story we used the Somebody Wanted But So Then Strategy.  Since the story is about Picture Day, we made these cameras from 3rd Grade Rooted in Reading August.  We wrote our summaries on polaroids like we were recapturing the story with our cameras!

It was a great visual for our summary!  The students LOVED making the summary strip!   We also made summary bracelets.  I brought in beads that matched our polaroid colors.  Here’s what they stood for:

PINK:  Somebody (main character)

GREEN:  Wanted (what did the main character want?)

ORANGE:  But (what was the problem?)

BLUE:  So (how was the problem solved)

YELLOW:  Then (how did the story end?)

We used the bracelets to retell the story using our summarizing strategy.  We moved the beads along as we retold the story.  The wonderful thing about the bracelet is it can be used again and again!

Such a perfect way to get those students hooked on summarizing!!!  Grab yourselves some beads and pipe cleaners, and you will be all set!

Want to remember this idea for later?  Pin the image below 🙂

The camera and summarizing polaroids can be found in our reading unit by clicking HERE!