Main Idea

Happy Middle of the Week!

I think I can....  I think I can...

We have 7 more school days until holiday break

AND

I've been away from my classroom for the past couple of days with

a sick little one.  He's finally back to giggling and smiling again, so I think he's starting to feel better.

YES!

I've been feeling so guilty... 

Guilty for being out of my classroom so much ( 3 days)  with so much to do

AND guilty for thinking I should be in my classroom instead of cuddling with my little guy at home.

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Main Idea

I wanted to share with you some things we have been working on with main idea.

I was evaluated last week, and my lesson was on main idea with informational text. 

I spent several days researching the internet for great ideas and activities I could use with my students when teaching them main idea. This is such a difficult concept for some of my 3rd graders. I wanted to be able to incorporate a variety of different activities and resources to help my students with main idea.

1.  I found this fabulous video from Teaching Channel.Org  of Ms. Bannon's lesson on main idea.

I used her idea at the very beginning of the lesson with giving the students a story to help introduce main idea.  It was a perfect way to begin our lesson on main idea! We had such a great discussion about main idea after the story I shared with my students.

2.  This has been one of our brain breaks this past week. .. My students are still singing the verb rap.

I found this from the Watch, Know, Learn website.  There are a lot of great resources on this site.
Just click on the picture to be taken to the link of this main idea song.

3.  Another online resource I found was through Brainpop Jr.  My students love Tim and Moby.

Just click on the picture above to be taken to the link.
4.  I created a Main Idea Power Point Presentation that included 2 nonfiction texts to use in a mini lesson.

5.  Then we read an article from our Scholastic News and found the main idea and supporting details.
My students created a "main idea burger".

6.  The next 2 items are sitting on my desk ready to go as soon as I return to class.  The first one is a main idea mobile.  We are going to use these with a reindeer nonfiction text.  When finished, these will be hung up in the classroom.

7.  The other item my students will use to practice main idea is "What's in the bag?"
I plan on having 4 of them set up at our station areas.  Each group is to decide from the collection of items inside of the bag what the main idea of the bag would be.  Then they must write a sentence about each item as the supporting details.  Each group will present their findings to the class.

8.  Main Idea Task Cards-  These work perfectly with small groups or stations.

The ones below are from Rachel Lynette.  These are fabulous.  Just click on the link to be find out more.

I also created a set of nonfiction main idea task cards to use with my students as well.  They include a work mat.

I put all of these items I created and more in a Main Idea Mega Pack- aligned to the Common Core.  This unit includes 9 activities on main idea.  These activities include: Main Idea power point presentation, Lend a Helping Hand Main Idea Activity, Main Idea Burger, Main Idea Mobile, 3 cut and paste main idea activities, 2 main idea graphic organizers, Main Idea Task cards, Whats in the Bag? main idea activity,  and main idea bookmarks.  Just click on any picture below to find out more about this in my TPT store.

Enjoy the rest of your week! Thanks so much for stopping by!