In fourth and fifth grade, we are practicing the Somebody / Wanted / But / So / Then method of summarizing a story.
We read The Worm Family Has Its Picture Taken - written by Jennifer Frank and illustrated by David Ezra Stein - as a class and then the students worked together to write these summaries:
wanted to take a picture with her family.
But Emma wanted her family to be more colorful,
so she got a box of a bunch of accessories.
Then they looked drippy.
Mrs. Worm
wanted to remember her family,
but she had such a small brain that she couldn’t.
So they decided to take a picture.
Then they made the word “Cheese” with their bodies.
Emma
wanted her family to have a picture like her friends’.
But she wasn’t like her friends.
So she was sad.
Then she decided to order what her friends had: colors, hair, and teeth.
The family
wanted a family portrait to hang up in their house.
But when Emma saw her friends’ family portraits, she felt bad.
So they dressed up.
Then the photographer couldn’t recognize them.
Emma
wanted to have a special picture like her friends,
but all of her friends’ pictures kind of made her sad because she wasn’t like them.
So she got stuff to look like them.
Then the photographer didn’t recognize her family.
The family
wanted to take a picture,
but they looked drippy and Mr. Muskrat didn’t know who they were.
So they took their costumes off,
Then Mr. Muskrat recognized them as Emma’s family.
Emma
wanted her family to take a picture,
but Mr. Muskrat didn’t recognize them with those big goofy buck teeth.
So they took all of it off.
Then they took the picture and it was “perfectly perfect.”
The family
Wanted the photographer to take their picture
But he didn’t recognize them.
So they took off their costumes.
Then they turned their bodies into letters and spelled “Cheese.”
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