As your class reaches the end of the book Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle, the seventh lesson in this literary unit helps third graders transition from reading narrative to expository writing. Scholars develop their note-taking skills...

Pay attention to details! After completing text-dependent questions about paragraphs 10-12 of "Water is Life," scholars view the video "Why Care about Water. "They view the video three times and use a Main Idea and Details note-catcher...

Practice outlining and evaluating expository writing in this instructional activity. After discussing main ideas and seeing examples, young writers go through a sample outline and discuss the way to properly format a piece of writing....

Cement comprehension skills using the strategies in this activity. After reading the story, Juan Verdades by Joe Hays, learners use context clues to answer questions, identify main ideas and details, and sequence events.

A handy TFDC (topic/fact/detail/conclusion) graphic organizer (included) allows young writers to outline and record their main ideas and supporting details in the prewriting phase. They then continue to add details to the topic sentences...

Designed for third graders but appropriate for older learners as well, this packet of materials underscores the necessity of teaching kids how to summarize, how to identify main ideas and supporting details, and how to ask questions...

Let's eat! Scholars read pages 24-25 of The Inuit Thought of It to discover the foods eaten by the Inuit. They sketch a visual gist of the section in their journals and write a summary paragraph about the text.

As your 3rd grade class finishes reading Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle, the eighth lesson plan of this unit helps readers from an understanding of the very specific information on the final page of the book. As with the entire unit,...

Explore non-fiction comprehension strategies with your class. They will visualize daily activities and label a 4 circle Venn diagram with related phrases. They must identify the overlapping sections as "main ideas," then complete a...

Pay attention! Scholars view the video"Why College Students Should Start Paying Attention to Water" multiple times to complete a note catcher. After discussing their thoughts with the class, learners watch "The Water Crisis Isn’t...

Begin at the end. Present your class with an expository essay and ask them to create an outline of the article, paying particular attention to the main ideas and the details supporting these ideas. After a discussion of what they have...

Challenge your class with this lesson! Learners read The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, discuss context clues, identify main ideas and details, and analyze story elements. Discussion questions and activities are broken down for each chapter...

Does the picture tell the story? Learners continue their work in The Inuit Thought of It by creating a visual gist of pages 16 and 17. They then complete a main idea graphic organizer and discuss key supporting details.

Young scholars continue their exploration of adolescent brain development by reading an informational text, "Growing Up Digital," by Matt Richtel. Then, with partners, they complete note-catcher worksheets to capture the article's main...

Engage your class in a scavenger hunt to find the main ideas and supporting details in a text. They follow the teacher while s/he models how to determine main idea and find supporting details, and then they work independently. A fun...

Calling all experts! Using the educational resource, pupils work together in small expert groups, reading an article about the 2010 Haiti earthquake. As they read, they record two main ideas and supporting details from the text.

What's going on in the teen brain? Pupils consider the question as they continue reading an informational article about the topic. While reading, they use a Thinking Log worksheet and an anchor chart to track their understanding of...

Surviving winter. Pupils begin reading on page 18 of The Inuit Thought of It: Amazing Arctic Inventions and sketch how the people used animal skin clothing to survive the winter. Readers complete a main idea graphic organizer...

In this reading worksheet, young scholars learn to identify the main idea in a newspaper article. Young scholars read an article about police dogs and answer 2 questions. Then young scholars choose 3 newspaper articles on their own and...

Fourth graders read cards about the explorers: Coronado, Lewis, and Clark, Pike, and Long. In this influential expeditions lesson plan, 4th graders describe and observe explorers who came to Kansas. Students locate main reasons and...

Students read given information and identify the main ideas and specific detail of the story. In groups, they read a historical title and create a "book talk" for each one, summarizing the story. In addition, students create a...

Practice comprehension skills using the story, The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon by Bea Uusma Schyffert. Learners answer questions, fill out graphic organizers, and engage in extension activities involving writing and...

In the third activity from this unit based on the book Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle, learners focus on using specific details from the text-to-answer questions about the habitat of bullfrogs. While reading the text, young...

Did you hear that? It's the main idea! Teach your class listening and note-taking strategies for determining the main idea by following the steps provided in this plan.