Grade 5 SWBST Rumpelstiltskin Summaries

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In fifth grade, we practiced the Somebody / Wanted / But / So / Then method of summarizing a story. (And discussed how summarizing is different from retelling.)

Here is what the students came up with for the Caldecott-honor version of Rumplestiltskin by Paul O. Zelinsky:


The miller
Wanted to impress the king,
But he made something up.
So his daughter had to spin straw into gold.
Then the little man came.
-M.C.

The girl
Wanted to spin straw into gold,
But she couldn't.
So R. helped her.
Then she married the king.
- T.S.

R.
Wanted the queen's baby,
But she wouldn't give it to him.
So he said, "I'll give you three days to guess my name; if you get it right, you keep the baby.
Then she guessed his name so she flew away on a spoon.
- A.M./J.S.

The king
Wanted a girl to spin straw into gold.
But she couldn't, because she didn't know how.
So R. did it for her, but he wanted something [in exchange]. Finally the girl had nothing, so R. wanted her first child.
Then when the time came she wouldn't give him the child, so he gave her days to guess his name. Eventually she got it right.
- A.T.

The little man
Wanted the queen's child,
But they made a deal that if she guessed his name, she would keep the child.
So the queen guessed his name, R.
Then the little man flew away on his cooking spoon and never returned.
- T.R.

The miller's daughter
Wanted to spin straw into gold,
But she could not.
So R. helped her.
Then she had to give him her first child.

R.
Wanted the queen's baby.
But if she could think of his name in three days, she could keep her baby.
So she thought and thought and finally knew his name.
Then she got it right, and R. was never seen again.
- M.P.