Main Idea in a Bag: Hands-On Practice with 10 Social Studies & Science Card Sets

Main ideas and supporting details are HARD concepts, especially if you are stuck reading a long, boring article. :) So, when introducing main idea to my ‘BIG’ 5th graders it had to be interactive. In this hands-on resource, students work in pairs to differentiated between the topic, main idea, and supporting details. This is a fantastic activity for modeling what main ideas, topics, and supporting details look and sound like. Additionally, this hands-on ‘game’ is a perfect transition into students identifying their own main ideas in a nonfiction passage.

This resource includes…

Teacher Notes
*A Picture Tutorial – Using This Resource
*Explaining Main Idea as a House

Anchor Charts
-Topic
-Main Idea
-Supporting Details
-The Main Idea ‘House’

Printables
*Main Idea ‘House’ Recording Page
*Main Idea Mapping Page

5 Social Studies Based Main Idea Sets
-Causes of the Civil War
-Causes of the Revolutionary War
-How 9/11 Changed America
-Important Inventors
-Famous Speeches that Changed America

5 Science Based Main Idea Sets
-Effects of Increased Technology
-Characteristics of Deserts
-Scorpion Adaptations
-Ways to Go Green
-Animals that Travel in Groups

If you have any questions or requests, please email at brownbagteacher@gmail.com.

Happy teaching,
Catherine
The Brown-Bag Teacher

***For other hands-on Common-Core aligned resources, check out my Greek and Latin Root Word Games and my Point of View resource!