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Teaching Main Idea / Central Idea – Activities to Build Understanding

Teaching main idea and supporting details / central idea to 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students can be a very frustrating experience; it is such a difficult skill to understand.  Very few of my lessons seemed to have an effect on my 3rd grade students - either they understood how to find the main idea without my help, or they didn't understand no matter what I did or said.

The curriculum my district used was no help - it introduced central idea by having students read a fictional story from our textbook (about 15 pages long) and fill out the main idea and supporting details in a blank graphic organizer together while we were reading. The students were magically supposed to understand main idea and details after this one activity.

Needless to say, the majority of my students needed a LOT more scaffolding, examples, and strategies in order to have a thorough understanding of main idea.

(Don't have much time?  Then go straight to this Main Idea Freebie for 3 main idea activities you can use today.)

Why Most Main Idea Lessons Don't Work

The problem with most main idea resources is that they don't teach students HOW to find the main idea; instead, the resources simply provide students with lots of practice of a skill that they don't really understand. And then students practice finding main idea in the wrong way and form misconceptions that can be very difficult to correct.

Over the years, I experimented with a variety of different ways and strategies to teach main idea and supporting details to my students.  I compiled all of the most effective strategies in this Scaffolded Main Idea and Details Resource.

It starts simple and isolates different skills required in order for students to understand main idea.  Then, it gets increasingly difficult until students are eventually thinking about the central idea of an entire passage.

This resource minimizes your prep time while maximizing student learning.  But if you don't mind a little prep work, then check out the 4 lesson ideas below that will help you teach main idea in a way that struggling students will actually understand.  

Minimize prep, maximize learning with this Main Idea and Details Scaffolded Resource.   The resources start simple and get increasingly more difficult, make it easy for you to differentiate, reteach, or simply introduce main idea to your students.

Best of all, almost all of the resources require absolutely no prep!

A Main Idea / Central Idea Lesson Example Using Titles

Teaching students how to use a title to help them figure out the main idea of a reading passage is an easy and often overlooked strategies.

In nonfiction texts especially, the title will usually tell you exactly what the topic of the passage will be, which is the first step to figuring out the main idea.

Let's say your 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade class is reading Sheila Keenan's Animals in the House: A History of Pets and People . Just based on this title, students should be able to make reasonable predictions as to the main idea and supporting details of the text. You could ask some different questions to help encourage that thinking:

• What will this book be mostly about?
• Do you think one of the supporting details in this book will be about elephants?  Why or why not?
• Do you think one of the supporting details in this book will be about dogs?  Why or why not?
• What other animals might the author include to support the main idea?  How do you know?
• Which of the following statements is more likely to be the main idea of the book: "Dogs make great pets because they are friendly, loving, and loyal," OR "Throughout history, people have depended on a variety of pets for help, companionship, and protection."

Just by thinking carefully about this title, students should be able to predict a reasonable central idea to the book, as well as possible supporting details. In nonfiction books or passages, students can also use headings to make similar predictions of the main idea and details of smaller sections.

You could also cover up the title of a book or passage, and have students make predictions about what the title is after reading. This will get students thinking about what was most important and what the text was mostly about.

Topic VS Supporting Details Activity - Grouping Words

This is a simple yet powerful activity that can help students distinguish between the topic and supporting details. Simply provide students with a list of words from several categories, have students organize those words into groups, and then have them come up with an appropriate title for each group.

This activity helps address an important struggle students have when it comes to main idea. Students have a hard time understanding that the details that support a certain main idea or topic are all different, yet related to each other. Requiring students to sort words into groups is a great introduction into this concept.

Another important aspect of this activity is having students come up with an appropriate title for each group of words. This is a great way to introduce the concept of topic to your students - which later will help them better understand main idea.

Younger learners, ESOL students, or struggling upper elementary readers could do this same activity using pictures rather than words. They will still get valuable practice with the skill without the frustration of reading words without any context.

Get one of these cut and paste activities - and as well as two others main idea activities - for free.

Teaching Students That Details Should Support the Main Idea

This activity takes a lot more prep if you do it yourself instead of using this Scaffolded Main Idea Resource, but it is a valuable way to assess students' understanding of main idea and supporting details while getting them to think more critically.

Before your main idea lesson, write a paragraph that has a very clear main idea. Then, add a sentence to the paragraph that is somewhat on topic, but doesn't really support the main idea of the paragraph. Students must read the paragraph and determine which sentence doesn't belong.

In order for this activity to be effective, the paragraphs must be written thoughtfully.  The sentence that does not belong should not be immediate obvious to students, but instead require students to think carefully about how the details relate to each other to support the central idea.

This is a much better assessment of main idea understanding than the typical "Find the Topic Sentence" activity that many main idea worksheets have.

This activity is also included in this main idea and details free printable!

How to Use Main Idea Graphic Organizers

I've seen a huge variety of cute main idea graphic organizers in my search for main idea resources - umbrellas, flowers, hamburgers, hands, tables, ice cream cones, clouds, popcorn - you name it, it's been done.

But no matter how cute or fun it is, the graphic organizer itself is probably not going to make confused upper elementary students miraculously understand how to find the main idea better.

One of the most frustrating things about typical main idea resources and graphic organizers is that they go straight to having students come up with the main idea of a passage without any scaffolding. This is a HARD skill for students - many adults struggle with this as well!

Instead of expecting students to be able to come up with the main idea statement themselves on a blank graphic organizer, provide students with the main idea and details but DON'T tell them which statements are the details and which statement is the main idea.

Then, have students put the statements in the correct spots on the graphic organizer. This takes away the frustration students feel of trying to come up with the main idea from thin air, while at the same time giving students valuable practice in distinguishing between the main idea and supporting details.  (Get a free example of this main idea activity here.)

The more students do this type of activity, the more capable they will be able to find the main idea and supporting details themselves.

According to the feedback I have gotten from my Scaffolded Main Idea Resource,  these scaffolded graphic organizers are one of the most helpful resources for teaching main idea.

This scaffolded main idea resource is my best seller for a reason.  It is almost completely no prep while drastically improving students' understanding of main idea.

The resource has cut and paste activities, worksheets, task cards, graphic organizers, reading passages, and more that will help your students understand the differences between topic, supporting details, and main idea.

You might also like these other main idea tips, activity ideas, and freebies!

Want These Free, No Prep Main Idea Activities?

Comments 17

Pingback: Teaching Main Idea & Details | Tips & Materials | Christin Sanders

Pingback: Teaching Main Idea and Details | ceiliúradh

Pingback: Teaching Main Idea & Details | Tips & Materials | A Happy Learner

Can you share your ideas with me to help me DI for my inclusion students?

I think inclusion students often are most successful when they are provided good scaffolding. I’ve shared some of my ideas for scaffolding a few different skills here. . I hope you find something helpful.

Thank you so much for the ideas. I am always looking for new ideas to implement in my classroom. My K students have to give main ideas to be at the reading level the district would like by the end of kindergarten. This is a very difficult concept for 5 and 6 year old’s to understand. It has no place for assessment in Kindergarten. Thank you for sharing.

I agree, that does not seem like an age appropriate expectation!

I really enjoyed the flow of these concepts and how they were each carefully thought out. They rocked!

Ideas provide scaffolding

Your ideas for teaching main ideas are awesome. I’m truly relieved from stress of looking for how to do it. God bless you.

So happy to be able to help!

Thank you very much! These activities are easy to teach for teachers as well as easy to understand for students to learn about main idea and details. I love it!

This is awesome.. I will definitely use your ideas. The strategies really make sense and will minimize stress of the students

I love your main idea and details lessons!

It’s an excellent website of resourceful information

Thank you so much!

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The Complete Guide to Teaching Main Idea and Theme

By Mary Montero

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Determining the main idea and/or theme of a text are critical reading comprehension skills. While it may seem like main idea is a pretty simple skill for upper elementary, once you start digging into the complexities of adding theme as well, it can get tricky! I’ve learned that teaching main idea and theme in unison can help students discern the difference between the terms.

Download Everything You Need– for free!

This free PDF guide will allow you to have all of the main idea and theme resources right at your fingertips. It’s packed with checklists, book lists, lesson plans, anchor charts, practice activities, and more!

Important Main Idea and Theme Vocabulary

Note: There is a great deal of conversation about the proper use of the terms main idea and central idea. Some scholarly articles refer to main idea as being used only for informational texts. Others refer to it being used for both fictional and informational texts. For the purpose of this guide, main idea and central idea are used interchangeably to mean the big idea of the text, whether it is fiction or informational text. I introduce both terms to my students.

Here are a few key terms to cover:

• Theme: The message or lesson
• Main Idea: What the story/text is mostly about
• Key Details: Events or information that support the main idea.
• Topic: The subject of the text
• Recount: Retelling the story/text in your own words
• Summarize: A more formal retelling of the main points and key details of a text in your own words.

Main Idea and Theme Lesson

For 3rd Grade, this lesson is usually done after students have been introduced to main idea and theme independently. If you are teaching grades 4+, this works well as an introduction to both topics.

Introduction and Hook

Begin by playing the song and/or video for Surface Pressure from Encanto (any Disney song works well for this lesson). Then, ask students to describe what was happening in the video. Write down all of their brainstorming. After they’ve listed out all the things that happened, ask them to describe, in ONE sentence, what the song is about. This will be the main idea of the song. Once we’ve determined the main idea, I ask them to brainstorm how Luisa is feeling, what message the song is sending, and what lesson can be learned from the song. This is our theme. Finally, I ask them to pair the theme down to ONE word. This is our topic. My students LOVED this activity, and it became very clear to them the difference between the three terms.

Anchor Chart

After we dissect Surface Pressure, we create the anchor chart together. I usually give them the themes, and then they generate a fictional main idea statement that would teach the theme. This is another chance to discuss the difference between theme and topic. Oftentimes, we are tempted to write the theme as one word, but in reality, it is usually at least a brief phrase or a sentence.

At this point, I like to start Picture Book of the Day. I have compiled a list of books that are perfect for determining theme, and I highly recommend you read one each day as you’re teaching this skill. Create a chart where you determine the main idea, topic, and theme of each book. For grades 4+, add a column for students to write evidence of the theme on one color sticky note and evidence of the main idea on another.

I created an  Amazon Affiliate List of my favorite main idea and theme picture books . The free PDF includes activity suggestions to use with some of the books to make teaching your lessons easier!

Now is the perfect time to use the free flipbook resource from your download. It serves as direct instruction, note taking, and critical practice for students.

Main Idea and Theme Sort

Now that students have had a decent amount of practice identifying theme and main idea, we move on to completing this short sort .

Main Idea and Theme Enrichment and Practice Activities

Just like we start our lesson with a clip from a Disney song and movie, I always incorporate a lyric dissection into our week of main idea vs. theme lessons. This lesson usually comes after we complete our flipbook together. We focus heavily on annotation and providing evidence to support our theme.

I consider these main idea vs. theme task cards an essential part of the lesson sequence, as it gives students a differentiated way to consider different themes and main ideas of texts.

Related Blog Posts

• Main Idea Task Card Activity
• Nonfiction Main Idea

Related Resources

• Find the Theme Task Cards
• Teaching Theme and Topic
• Main Idea Game
• Main Idea Activity
• Main Idea Task Cards
• Theme Paired Passages

Mary Montero

I’m so glad you are here. I’m a current gifted and talented teacher in a small town in Colorado, and I’ve been in education since 2009. My passion (other than my family and cookies) is for making teachers’ lives easier and classrooms more engaging.

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How to teach main ideas in upper grades.

If you are looking for tips on teaching main idea in upper grades, you’re in the right place! This blog post is for all of you 4th and 5th grade teachers who are getting ready to teach main idea in informational text. For my blog post on main idea in primary grades, click here .

Teaching main idea in upper grades will have similar key skills. The primary difference in the 4th and 5th-grade main idea standards is that in 4th grade, students are looking for one main idea of an entire text. In 5th grade, students are looking for multiple main ideas.

Standards for Main Idea:

• 4th Grade RI: Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text.
• 5th Grade RI: Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text.

Introduce Main Idea in Upper Grades:

Main idea is a skill that can give students some trouble. You may introduce the skill in seclusion and work toward mastery, but I also suggest revisiting the skill throughout the year.

When introducing main idea, an anchor chart is a good place to start. Students need to understand the purpose and parameters of main idea. An anchor chart needs to have a clear description of the topic or skill. So, you can create (or print/display) an anchor chart and revisit it throughout your unit. The anchor charts below can be printed or displayed digitally. Then, as you revisit main idea throughout the year, pull the anchor chart back out to reinforcement.

Modeling with Mentor Texts

Another essential component to teaching main idea in upper grades is modeling. There are so many high-quality informational texts out there! For main idea, I like to choose texts that have a straight-forward message. These texts may be shorter/simpler than a typical intermediate mentor text. But, they will provide you with the information students need to properly learn main idea skills.

Below are a few of my favorite Main Idea mentor texts. These texts can be used as a read-aloud in a mini-lesson. They are perfect to use with any of the graphic organizers or interactive notebook pages.

Each of the links below are affiliate links to Amazon! To grab your copy of some of these mentor texts, click the links below:

• She Persisted Around the World by Chelsea Clinton
• Emmanuel’s Dream: The True Story of Emmanual Ofoso Yeboah
• Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca
• Ivan: The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla by Katherine Applegate
• Bats! Strange and Wonderful by Laurence Pringle
• Super Swimmers: Whales, Dolphins and Other Mammals of the Sea by Caroline Arnold
• A Nest is Noisy by Dianna Hutts Aston
• A Rock is Lively by Dianna Hutts Aston

Lesson Additions

Don’t forget about adding informational videos and activities, like BrainPop! Tim and Moby make the idea of main idea easier to understand for students with great visual elements and explanations. There are graphic organizers and quizzes that your kids can use, too!

(Link: Brain Pop Main Idea Video )

Practice Simply Finding the Main Idea

When teaching main idea in upper grades, you are still going to want to scaffold skills and activities. So, you can start with simply finding the main idea with short texts or matching. In this activity, students are given four different “real-life scenarios” where they can identify the main idea. It is a great activity for drawing real-life connections so students can solidify their skills before applying them to longer texts.

Back It Up with Key Details

Your next step will be working with key details. It is important for students to be able to differentiate details. There are anchor charts, lessons, and activities specific to key details in these units. For the activity above, students will be formulating strong supportive details for each main idea statement.

This activity requires students to match details with specific main ideas. This will help students learn how to determine which details are important. It will also help them with understanding what kind of details support a main idea.

What about Multiple Main Ideas?

In 5th grade, students will be identifying multiple main ideas. For this, students will be looking for sections of information that are about a similar topic. Texts are longer and more detailed in 4th and 5th grade, so the information will be divided into sections. So, students will need to learn how to identify the main ideas of these subsections of text. Then, they will be able to figure out what the entire test is about.

This activity will have students look for the main idea of the different sections of the text. They will even be retitling the sections after learning what each section is about. Practice and skill application will be essential for students developing multiple main idea skills.

Want a free Main Idea activity to get you started?

FREE MAIN IDEA ACTIVITY

This free digital activity comes with links to Seesaw and Google Slides for your students. They will practice their main topic or main idea skills.

Or, would you like complete units for your Main Idea unit?

I have complete units for 4th and 5th grade Main Idea. These units have lesson plans, graphic organizers, reading passages with comprehension questions, task cards, interactive notebook pages, assessments, and more! I have also created a few activities in ready-made Google Slides. These are digital Main Idea activities for 3rd and 4th Grade. Click the button below to grab the link you need.

Looking for more Upper Grades blog posts?

• How to Teaching Inferences 
• Teaching Students to Determine Theme
• Read more about: Common Core Aligned , Comprehension , Reading Blog Posts , Uncategorized

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Identify the Main Idea Activities for 4th Grade

Strengthen your child's identify the main idea skills with interactive educational resources for identify the main idea for 4th graders online. These learning resources include fun games and worksheets with eye-catching visuals and characters. Get started to help your 4th grader master this concept by engaging their critical thinking.

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4th grade english language arts lesson on finding facts through close read of text; aligned to MA Curriculum Framework Standard RI.4.1.

4th Grade ELA, Main Idea is a free educational video by .

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Main idea mini lessons.

It doesn’t matter what grade you teach, main idea is always on your lesson plans sometime in the year.  This reading skill is important as it helps students take important facts or events from a text, summarize them, and understand the author’s most important message.  But teaching main idea can be hard and many students aren’t successful at this skill right away.  One problem is that teachers can only think of certain ways to break down and teach the skill and then run out of ideas.  I’ve got you covered!  I’m sharing 5 main idea mini lessons just for you!

Mini-lessons are a great way to teach reading skills just like main idea.  You can also use these tips and tricks or mentor texts too!  Make sure to check them out!

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Main Idea Mini Lesson #1

Objective :  I can match the pieces of an article based on its main idea.

One great thing about teaching main idea, is that it is helpful not only in reading but also in writing. This little mini lesson supports both! Create two article titles, two article headings, and 3-4 facts to go under each heading. Write each of them separately on sentence strips or index cards. Mix them up and place on the front board. Read through all of them with students and then guide the students to unmix them and match up the title, heading, and facts or each ‘article’. While doing this, discuss main idea and supporting details and how by matching the pieces they were finding commonalities amongst the text.

Main Idea Mini Lesson #2

Objective :  I can determine the main idea of a puzzle based on the details of its pieces.

Sometimes, making main idea click for students is as simple as finding a way to make it concrete. Take a puzzle for instance. We can think of the individual pieces as details and the main overall image in the puzzle as the main idea. For this mini lesson, that’s exactly what we are going to do! Go through puzzles that you have at home or in your classroom. Pick out 2-3 pieces per puzzle that show a good amount of detail on the individual pieces. Then with your students, discuss the commonality between main idea and puzzles. Show the students one of the puzzle pieces and have them brainstorm or draw out what they think the rest of the puzzle would be. Discuss details vs. main idea while students share their examples.

Want to snag a printable copy of all of these main idea mini lessons?  Grab it for FREE below!

Main Idea Mini Lesson #3

Objective :  I can create a main idea statement from the details in a photograph.

By allowing students to do more creating than reading when working with main idea, they pick up on the relationship a lot easier and faster. In this mini lesson you’re going to use photographs to allow students to create main idea statements and supporting details. Find photographs off Google to print. The photographs need to be about experiences and situations the students can relate to. Then have the students work in pairs or groups to create 3 detailed statements first. Share these out loud with the group and discuss. Then as a group create a main idea statement to overarch the details the students created. Repeat with 1-2 more photos.

Main Idea Mini Lesson #4

Objective :  I can identify supporting details in a nonfiction text.

Many times, students become overwhelmed with identifying details because there are so many sentences in the text to choose from. We need to provide a lesson that shows them how to analyze each sentence one at a time. In this mini lesson, find a nonfiction article that’s 1-2 paragraphs in length. Read the article together as a class. Together, identify the main idea of the text and write it on the front board. Then lead the class in finding supporting details for the main idea. Reread each sentence one at a time and stop to discuss it. Does this support the main idea? Why or why not? By doing this sentence by sentence it gives the students the opportunity to truly see HOW we analyze all the details and determine which support, and which do not. Cross out the non-supporting details and highlight the supporting ones.

Need MORE than just mini lesson ideas or don’t have time to create the lessons yourself?  I’ve got you covered!  Check out my entire Main Idea unit filled with full whole group lessons, exit tickets, assessment, reading center, craft, and more! Click the button below to check it out!

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Main Idea Mini Lesson #5

Objective :  I can write out the main idea of a fiction and nonfiction text

Students sometimes comprehend a story very well but putting the main idea into words is challenging. A strong and simple way to support students like this is to give them sentence stems! A simple nonfiction and fiction sentence stem helps the student think through the text they read and put their thoughts into the blanks. By using the sentence stems over a period, they will have the gist of how to word a main idea statement and won’t need them anymore! In this mini lesson, have 2 fiction paragraphs and 2 nonfiction paragraphs ready. Write the sentence stems on the board: (Fiction) The story is about (character) who (details) and then (detail). (Nonfiction) The main idea is about how/who (detail). Practicing using the stems after reading the texts to create main idea statements.

I hope you found some new and unique ideas to help teach main idea to your students.  If you want to save this post for later, make sure to pin the image below!

• Read more about: Guided Reading , Nonfiction , Reading , Reading Comprehension , Small Groups

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Main Idea (Grades 3-4)

With our Main Idea lesson plan for grades 3-4, students learn how to determine the main idea of a text and how to identify supporting details. Students are also asked to differentiate between main ideas and supporting details.

Included with this lesson are some adjustments or additions that you can make if you’d like, found in the “Options for Lesson” section of the Classroom Procedure page. One of the optional additions to this lesson is to use the students’ current reading material as an example for them to practice identifying the main idea and supporting details.

Description

Additional information, what our main idea (grades 3-4) lesson plan includes.

Lesson Objectives and Overview: Main Idea develops students’ ability to identify main ideas and the details which support it. Students will also learn how to write their own paragraphs and text with a main idea and several supporting details.  This lesson is for students in 3rd grade and 4th grade.

Classroom Procedure

Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the orange box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand. The supplies you will need for this lesson are scissors, colored pencils, glue or paste, construction paper, and the handouts. To prepare for this lesson ahead of time, you can gather the supplies and copy the handouts.

Options for Lesson

Included with this lesson is an “Options for Lesson” section that lists a number of suggestions for activities to add to the lesson or substitutions for the ones already in the lesson. One of the optional additions to this lesson is to extend the lesson opening by asking a different group of students a different question (such as “What are the sports you play?”). You could also use a graphic organizer to help students identify the main idea and supporting details in a text. You can use the students’ current reading material as an example for students to practice identifying the main idea and supporting details. Finally, you could consider using non-fiction materials to illustrate these concepts.

Teacher Notes

The teacher notes page includes a paragraph with additional guidelines and things to think about as you begin to plan your lesson. This page also includes lines that you can use to add your own notes as you’re preparing for this lesson.

MAIN IDEA (GRADES 3-4) LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES

The Main Idea (Grades 3-4) lesson plan includes two content pages. The lesson begins by asking students if they’ve ever told someone else a story about the people or things in a photograph. In the process of doing that, students are looking at the photo and determining what the main idea is. We define the main idea as the most important or key thoughts of a sentence, paragraph, story, or picture.

The lesson includes a picture of palm trees, sandals, beach chairs, and a beach. It suggests to students that the main idea for this picture could be “How I spent my summer vacation” or “The day at the beach.” The lesson then includes a paragraph with more details for each of these main ideas to illustrate how the main idea causes the details of the story to change.

The main idea, in writing, is what a sentence or paragraph is about. This is different from a topic. For example, your teacher may ask you to write about your summer vacation. That’s the topic of your writing. If you write a sentence about what the sand looked, felt, and smelled like, that sentence would have the main idea of the sand . The details would be what the sand looked, felt, and smelled like. Main ideas include supporting details. These give more information about the main idea. The lesson then includes an additional example of a paragraph where the sentence about sand is the main idea of the entire paragraph.

More Examples & Steps to Find the Main Idea

In another example paragraph, the main idea is about someone and their friend surfing. The rest of the paragraph provides details about their experience surfing. These details include how they surfed, what happened, and what experiences they had.

The lesson provides some helpful steps that can help you find the main idea of a text. Both whole texts and individual paragraphs within a text have main ideas and supporting details. The five steps are: 1. Identify the topic, 2. Read through the paragraph, 3. Find some of the details, 4. Identify the sentence the details are about, 5. You found the main idea.

Next, the lesson includes a paragraph and asks students to try to find the main idea. In this example, the main topic is about which bedroom someone chose when moving into a new house. The rest of the paragraph provides details about the bedroom.

The more students practice reading and identifying the main idea, the easier it will become! Being able to find the main idea will also make students better writers.

MAIN IDEA (GRADES 3-4) LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS

The Main Idea (Grades 3-4) lesson plan includes three worksheets: an activity worksheet, a practice worksheet, and a homework assignment. You can refer to the guide on the classroom procedure page to determine when to hand out each worksheet.

CREATE A PARAGRAPH ACTIVITY WORKSHEET

The activity worksheet asks students to create four paragraphs with clear main ideas and supporting details using sentences that are provided for them. They will cut the sentences out and then arrange them into paragraphs. They will then use a colored pencil to shade in the sentence with the main idea. Next, they will glue or paste the sentences onto construction paper in the correct order.

They will then write a fifth paragraph with a main idea sentence and four supporting details that they will come up with, and will paste that onto the construction paper as well. Finally, they will create a title for each of the five paragraphs. This will allow students to practice identifying and creating main idea and supporting details.

Students may work in pairs for this activity if you’d prefer.

MAIN IDEA OR SUPPORTING DETAIL PRACTICE WORKSHEET

For the practice worksheet, students will read sentences and decide if they would be main ideas or supporting details. They will then fill in the blanks in a paragraph with words related to the lesson content.

MAIN IDEA HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT

The homework assignment asks students to read several paragraphs and underline the main idea in each. They will also look at a picture and, using it as a guide, write down a main idea and four supporting details about the picture.

Worksheet Answer Keys

This lesson plan includes answer keys for the activity worksheet, the practice worksheet, and the homework assignment.  If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.

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