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