3rd Grade Language Arts

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Searching for the Main Idea

• 3rd Grade Language Arts
• Sherry McCombs
• Myken Fogt

To Teacher Pages
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Teacher Page
Objective The students will practice looking
for the main idea and extra details in a given
passage.
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Teacher Page
Procedure 1. Go through the slides. Discuss the
sentences and find the main ideas in each
passage. 2. Have the students write a story. 3.
Have the students share their stories and try to
find the main idea in their stories.
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There are two easy ways of finding the Main Idea
in a story.
1. Look for a word that is repeated several
times in a given paragraph.
For an example, click the arrow.
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Last summer, we grew watermelons. First, we
planted and watered the seeds. Soon our
watermelon plants came up. The plants grew big
and strong. By the end of the summer we had lots
of big, juicy watermelons.
Find a word in this paragraph that is repeated
more than twice.
Use the pen to circle a word you see several
times in the story.
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Some examples of possible answers are
- How to grow watermelons - Working together
to grow food from seeds
Share some of your ideas with the class.
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Another way to find the main idea in a paragraph
is to look at the first sentence in the paragraph.
Click on the arrow to see an example.
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We grew so many watermelons, we decided to
have a big party. We held the party in the park
in our neighborhood. We invited all of our
neighbors. More than fifty people came! We had
enough watermelons to feed everyone.
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Some examples of possible answers are
- The Watermelon Party - The Neighborhood
Block Party
Share some more ideas with the class.
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LETS REVIEW
When looking for the main idea in a story or
paragraph, there are two ways to find it. 1.
Look for words that are repeated several times in
the reading. 2. Read the first sentence in the
paragraph.
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Practice Time
Pick a topic and write a paragraph. Share your
paragraph with a partner. Look for the main idea
in your partners paragraph. Share some paragraphs
with the class.
The End