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Massachusetts: The Big Cheese

January 29, 2013 Ticia 6 Comments

teaching how to summarize a story

A few years ago when I first started our state studies we studied Wisconsin, and we read this book.  At the time I wasn’t even thinking about the fact that Jefferson was president and they didn’t enter the union for another 50 years or so.  This time I did, and paid a lot closer attention and caught the fact that it takes place in Massachusetts.  I’m rolling my eyes at myself.

001

After reading it (I admit this is not a picture of us reading, I just wanted a picture here), we talked through what happened in the story.

 

We talked about what they wanted to do, then we talked about what problems they had, and how they solved the problems.  After that they each had to write 3 sentences telling about the story.

 

That got a lot of eye rolling.

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But, eventually they got down to work and created decent summaries for early tries.

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They milked a lot of cow.  It was hard.  They used an apple press to make cheddar cheese. (Must be Batman’s he’s nuts for cheddar).

 

We could have also used the “Somebody Wanted But So” method I mentioned in the Davy Crockett Unit Study, but I wanted them to work on coming up with their own summary this time.

history, reading and writing American Revolution, modern history, US history

Comments

  1. Phyllis at All Things Beautiful says

    January 29, 2013 at 11:00 am

    I love this approach…it is what we do! LOL

    Reply
  2. Nina says

    January 29, 2013 at 4:05 pm

    Oooh, good idea with having a summary after a story. That’s after all, what we do a ton of in life and in school. Plus storytelling really helps with their logic and sequencing. Very cool.

    Reply
  3. Claire says

    January 30, 2013 at 4:57 am

    When the children were younger we did a similar thing, but it was all oral. Even now with the more intense school work I always have them narrate back to me what I’ve read. Need to keep an eye on whether they’re listening or day dreaming…..!

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      January 30, 2013 at 7:33 am

      Oh daydreaming…….. I am so familiar with you 🙂

  4. Natalie says

    January 30, 2013 at 10:42 pm

    In Anna’s school they teach to summarize by the beginning, middle and end and also by Problem definition or some such. It’s crazy what first graders are doing nowadays – I haven’t even started school at Anna’s and Princess age 🙂

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. United States geography ideas | Adventures in MommydomAdventures in Mommydom says:
    March 2, 2014 at 1:49 pm

    […] Massachusetts […]

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Ticia Adventures in Mommydom Hi, I'm Ticia! This is the adventures of my family in life and learning. Follow along with us as we share our adventures. We're having a lot of fun and learning as we go.

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