Giving students practical activities that help them locate the main ideas from their work will greatly help them in their later school years. This skill will aid them in summarizing work for learning purposes and better equip them to scan passages and pick out a central theme. Check out our fun list of 23 activities that'll assist you in teaching the concept of main ideas to your middle school class.
1. Main Idea Puzzles
Main idea puzzles place the central idea of a task, story, or body of writing at the top of the visual organizer stack. All other details are then added below in a puzzle-like manner.
Learn More: Simply Creative Teaching
2. Match Pictures To Paragraphs
This activity is wonderful for visual learners. When revising, students should be able to simply look at a picture and identify and describe the main focus. Your students can use magazine cutouts or even old textbooks.
Learn More: Book Units Teacher
3. Divide It Up
Help your learners differentiate between main ideas and details by breaking a paragraph up. The title they decide on should essentially round up the main idea. Other central themes can be listed as other main ideas. The paragraph can then also be broken up by answering questions such as who, what, where, how, and when.
Learn More: Book Units Teacher
4. Anchor Chart
Creating an anchor chart as a class can help your students get to grips with what exactly a main idea is classified as. Together you can identify the key concept, locate examples, facts and reasons as well as pick out definitions and descriptions and make comparisons and contrasts.
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5. Differentiate Between Themes & The Main Idea
Teach your learners the difference between the main idea and the theme or themes of a body of writing. The main idea can be described as what a story or passage is about whereas the theme is the overall lesson or moral of the story.
Learn More: Teaching With A Mountain View
6. Main Idea & Key Ring Details
The cute key ring organizers are the perfect tool to help your middle schoolers sort through a passage. Not only will they be able to identify the main idea as well as all the details, but they'll have a great aid for revision.
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7. What Doesn't Belong
This is an awesome introductory activity for teaching your students how to locate the main idea of something. Have them look at a series of 4 pictures and identify which is the odd one out. From there they should be able to suggest a title.
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8. Mystery Bags
Place 3 items of a similar nature into a brown paper bag. Give each learner a bag and a supporting worksheet. After drawing out the three items your student should be able to name the central idea.
Learn More: Lucky Little Learners
9. Show Photos
Show your learners photos and go around the classroom asking as many learners as possible to come up with a title. Pause in between to ask questions such as what made them choose a specific title and why they believe they've chosen a good one.
Learn More: Lucky Little Learners
10. Word Sort
Hand out a collection of assorted words to your students. Request that they sift through and divide them into categories. Once they've categorized the words they should be tasked with labeling each group with a title- therefore highlighting the overall idea of each group.
Learn More: Lucky Little Learners
11. Ice Cream Organizer
You can certainly get crafty when it comes to graphic organizers! This ice cream organizer is great as it places the main idea onto the cone- depicting that a central idea generally forms the foundation of a story. Once the main idea has been identified your learners can then add key details to scoops of ice cream.
Learn More: Lucky Little Learners
12. Look At The First And Last Sentences
The first and last sentences more often than not introduce and wrap up the main idea of an entire passage. Not only is this a good activity to teach main ideas, but it's a good tip for when your students begin story writing too!
Learn More: Upper Elementary Snapshots
13. Use Keywords
Highlighting or bolding keywords calls attention to the main idea of a body of writing. This activity is particularly well suited for working with difficult reading passages and is likely to help your students better understand the piece as a whole.
Learn More: Upper Elementary Snapshots
14. Give Me A Hand
This activity works wonders for helping students identify the main theme and key pieces of information in a paragraph. Learners can begin by tracing their hand and then writing who, what, when, where and how onto each of their fingers. After having located this information, they can write the main idea on their palm.
Learn More: Handy Handouts
15. Fairy Tale Find
Incorporate fairy tales into your next main idea lesson plan! Read the book aloud to your class- challenging them to listen out for important details so that they can decipher the moral of the story at the end. The overall moral of a story is generally the main idea too!
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16. Watch A Movie
Watching a movie during class time may seem like a waste of precious time, but we promise that this activity has a purpose! After watching a movie together have each learner sum up, using one sentence, what the movie was about. This teaches learners to condense large pieces of information and specify the main idea.
Learn More: Handy Handouts
17. Working Backwards
Working backward will challenge your learners' normal way of thinking and help them identify the main idea whilst helping you assess their understanding of central ideas. This task requires students to work through a paragraph- highlighting sentences they deem to be out of place, thus eliminating irrelevant information.
Learn More: A Love Of Teaching
18. Read A Book
Although this book is a little basic for middle school students, it works wonders for teaching the concept of main ideas! It gets your learners to identify the title ideas- also then distinguish them from other abstract concepts.
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19. Hamburger Graphic Organizer
We can't have a hamburger without the buns! Similarly, a body of writing is nothing without the main idea. This hamburger template will help your learners separate details from the main idea in a fun and visual way.
Learn More: LTKCDN.net
20. One To Two Words
Having your learners sum up the main idea statement in just two words provides you with a good understanding of whether or not they understand a passage. We'd recommend using this activity alongside other scaffolded main idea resources such as graphic organizers to add detail.
Learn More: Speech Time Fun
21. Main Idea Umbrella
Similar to how an umbrella covers us when it rains, it also allows students to cover all components of a story! The main idea can be written on the umbrella whilst all other details can be listed underneath.
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22. Play A Song
Introduce the concept of main ideas to your students by playing this super catchy main idea song. They'll better understand what the concept is and then be able to easily complete their activities.
Learn More: Jake Scott
23. Watch A Video
Using this animated short is the perfect tool for showing your students how to go about finding the main idea of a text. The video highlights the importance of locating main ideas and distinguishing them from extra details.
Learn More: McGraw Hill PreK-12
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