Main+Idea

//3 Main Idea Acti////vities// __**Give Me Five**__ Students will use their hands to develop five key points.

Give students a paper hand and have them write five details from the text. Write the inferred main idea on the palm. Fold the fingers over the main idea to make a fist. This shows that the main idea is what supports all of the details.

Differentiate it by having more able students make a bracelet to go around the wrist that is a short summary statement of the text. This is a great technique for main idea reading comprehension!

__**A Picture Is Worth 10 Words or Less**__ Younger students often need the support a picture gives. Meaning is derived from pictures that we use to support a text. This activity will be sure to be a hit with your main idea lesson plans.

Use book covers, illustrations...anything you can get your hands on. The key is that the illustrations are rich and vivid.

Challenge the students to state what is happening in the picture in 10 words or less. They have to ignore the little details and get the overall meaning.

You could even have them set up as stations and the class could rotate through them. Allow time for sharing at the end and choosing the best main idea for each picture.

__**Two-Word-Weekend**__ Challenge students to tell you what they did over the weekend with only two words.

For example, "Mom-Soccer" means that the child's mom took him to soccer. "Sister-Birthday" means that a student's sister had a birthday party.

An alternate way of doing this would be for each student to write their two words on a sticky note first thing Monday morning. They can place their notes on a designated spot. Later, you can pull two sticky notes off and ask the students to provide the details about their weekend!