Main Idea Activities

Great main idea activities and worksheets for students of all ages! Improve main idea in reading comprehension.

I wish I had thought of this main idea in reading comprehension activity myself, but I didn't.

This is a great teaching reading strategy. It's so simple yet brilliant.

It really does help kids improve finding the main idea in reading comprehension.

Main Idea in
Reading Comprehension Activities

Better than main idea worksheets - these reading comprehension strategies are perfect for primary students.

This is comprehension monitoring instruction that really helps kids connect with what the author is trying to say.

Give Me Five
Use your hand to tap into the kinesthetic learning style for main idea activities.
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!

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!

Sort and Share
Prior to this reading comprehension main idea activity, you will need to have selected short non-fiction reading passages and have written 5-6 relevant main idea topics on separate pieces of chart paper. These should be placed around the room as students will be sorting their details on them.
Place students into small groups. Give each group an appropriate short non-fiction text and some sticky notes (short articles work best for this main idea activity). Ask them to read the text together.
Next, each student must write four or five sticky notes with an interesting fact on each one.
Once they have written their sticky notes, they will need to go around the room and find the appropriate main idea heading to put their sticky note on.
Sort students again, but this time assign them a main idea chart paper. They are to write a page about their topic that includes the sticky note details. These pages can be compiled into a class book.

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.

Here are main idea in reading comprehension activities for your classroom.

These 14 worksheets are main idea lesson plans in an easy to use format.

Students will:

Use these main idea worksheets to differentiate in your classroom too. Just click on the apple to get your instant download for free!

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