This requires a lot more thinking than simply answering a question with a few words. Let your child help you with the family photo album or scrapbook. Use pictures, postcards, etc. to document family vacations. Have the child generate a single statement that summarizes the trip, activity, experience, etc. Younger children can dictate the summary for you to write down in your best manuscript printing.
Older children can write their own informal summaries down.
Make a scrapbook of key news events that occur during the year. Have your child select newspaper articles, magazines, photographs, etc. Read other people's summaries. Transparencies of the selection and summary can be used to help the students identify how the author has written general statements in the summary to describe details in the selection. With a marker, underline the details in the selection that reflect the general statement in the summary.