Some of my 3rd and 4th graders are having a difficult time with identifying Main Idea. Some just are not getting past the idea that not every paragraph or passage will have one sentence that will state the main idea. Others are just looking at the title of the piece and considering that the main idea, thus missing a lot of detail. So I really wanted to do an activity that pulls them away from text but still addresses the concept of main idea.
I decided to create bags full of items that go together. The students have to think about how the items relate to one another and ultimately what the main idea would be of all of the items together, as I slowly pull them out one at a time. One item is the key item that really ties everything together, the detail to best support the main idea. It worked really well! The kids loved it!
For the first bag I used a medium-sized tote that I used to use as a purse and we started by discussing what the bag could be used for and what could be inside (right away they guessed items that would belong in a purse). Inside I had a snack-sized bag of mini-cookies, a napkin, an orange, a drink, a spoon, and then a container of soup.
When the first few items were pulled out, we talked about how they were food items and would probably be eaten as a snack. When the final item, the soup, was revealed, then they knew that all of the items together meant, "Eating lunch."
The soup was the key item, the detail to best support the main idea. I have also put some additional bags together (baking items, swimming items, etc...) all with one key item to tie it all together.
I uploaded the plans and printables for the first bag below.
I would love to hear some of your suggestions for teaching Main Idea!
This is a wonderful idea! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI use a jpeg of the document and then PDF the document. So, you are looking at a photograph of the document on my blog and have to click to access it.
ReplyDeleteDoes that make any sense to you? Your activiy for main idea is really well done.
Fran@kindergartencrayons.blogspot.com
I think young readers get caught up in the sentence and paragraph level when looking for the main idea. While this is a great place to start (explicit main idea: 1st sentence main idea with supporting details), many "real" texts have an implicit main idea, which is not so easy for our students.
ReplyDeleteWhen I tutored in reading, I had my students (2nd through 5th grades) study the overall text structure of the piece. Doing this REALLY brought the main idea to life! Emily Kissner has a great book that I used called, Summarizing, Paraphrasing, & Retelling...She also has some great resources concerning this topic on slideshare.net (type in her name in the search bar). Hope that helps!
Thank you all!
ReplyDeleteFran-I was having trouble viewing documents blogs other than my own if they were embedding the documents using Google (not with a picture link). I downloaded Firefox and that seemed to help a bit.
I will have to look into Emily Kissner's book! Thank you for the information thisreadingmama! ~ Mrs. Mc
Thank you for posting this.. cant wait to try it on monday!
ReplyDeleteI'm a new follower... check out my blog and follow me too!! :)
maria
charmedinthirdgrade.blogspot.com
I absolutely love this idea! Thank you! I teach 2nd grade and we've worked on it all year. It's a tough concept, as you already know.
ReplyDeleteThank you for making it so easy! :)
Marcie
2ndgradewildabouteducation.blogspot.com
I have a fantastic resource for main idea that takes your awesome graphic organizer into various hands-on activities that range from K-5th grade than onto how it looks in real writing. I would love to share it. Let's talk soon. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this doc. I am helping a 3rd grader with reading comprehension and writing. This will fall right into place. Also, I am going to share this blog on my FB/thehelpingbridge page! You have so much for offer others!
ReplyDeleteCharity
I am so glad you found this useful! I am planning a second post, discussing the other bags I did with my students at the time.
ReplyDeleteFisher Reyna-please feel free to contact me!
Thanks!
I love this!!! I'm working on this with my sped students and this will def help them with this hard concept!! Thank you, Thank you!! -Brianne
ReplyDeleteFantastic idea! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Thank you, Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThis looks like something my fifth graders could use also--thanks :)
ReplyDeleteThis was an awesome lesson! I changed it up to be an end of the year project and referenced your lesson on my blog, I Teach. What's Your Super Power? Thanks so much for sharing your hard work.
ReplyDeleteI know that you posted this lesson some time ago but I wanted to let you know that it is being used in my classroom tomorrow. Thank you so much for sharing! :)
ReplyDeleteCasey
Second Grade Math Maniac
Hope it turned out good Casey!!
DeleteI used this on Monday to "introduce" Main Idea to my fifth graders. After doing the sample bag, they then worked in pairs to do other bags. I also added writing to the mix. They then picked one of the bags to write about. Some wrote a simple paragraph using the main idea as the topic sentence and supporting details to make the rest of the sentences. Some of them created very creative short stories about the bag. Thanks so much for the idea!
ReplyDeleteSounds great!! How did it go?!
DeleteI am so excited to use this. Anything that makes it visual for my kids is a huge help. I saw on another blog where they used simple color blocks to introduce main idea-- most of the blocks were one color, with a few others mixed in. All this concrete thinking...
ReplyDeleteWhat adaptations would you suggest for 5th graders?
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas!! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteSweet n Sassy in 2nd