Matchbook Summaries

  

  Matchbook

Summaries 

 

  I was reading Melissa's blog, "Got to Teach".  She had posted a fantastic idea, Matchbook Summaries.  You should check out her blogpost on Matchbook Chapter Summaries for Novel Studies...
www.gottoteach.com

     Thank you, Melissa, for sharing your idea.

    I used Melissa's idea in my Social Studies class as an end of the chapter wrap up.  We just finished a chapter on early exploration.  So I thought this would be perfect. 

     I started explaining the project with a mock up and a rubric.  Melissa had a rubric which I edited to meet the needs of my unit. Instead of chapter summaries, I had the students write short four sentence summaries of each section in the chapter.

      My kiddos took off running full speed ahead. Each student took four index cards to begin with.  We did some paper folding so the matchbooks would be the same basic size. The section numbers titles were written on the small flap of each index card. They began writing their section summaries on folded index cards. I suggested that all the summaries be completed before they started doing the matchbook cover illustrations. At the end of our first work session, every student got an envelope to store the index cards.  The envelopes were stored in class so nothing would get lost.  I am happy to say we had no tears due to lost work. 
    At the beginning of the next class, each student would retrieve their envelope, get more index cards if needed( 14 matchbooks in all) and continue working.

     The second step was to work on the illustrations for each matchbook cover.
The art work had to represent the information written in the summary.

 

    The  final step was to work on the cover of the file folder. The students decided if the illustration would be horizontal, vertical, or split in half depending on the layout of the folder and matchbooks.

       The children were very interested in the project that was completed in school by the majority of my 88 students. I was extremely impressed at all the hard work my students put in completing their matchbook summaries.  One girl ask if we were going to make one from every chapter. 

     Hi kids, do you see any of your work? You did a great job!

     Thank you again, Melissa, for sharing this super project. My 5th graders loved it! 

   Please leave a short comment if you have a minute.  I would love to hear from you. 
  

Beti