Beginning with Topics and Main Ideas

These activities go along with my “Topics and Main Ideas” Powerpoint. The idea is to help students understand main ideas by first looking at topics, and then seeing the relationship between topics and main ideas. Then, students should be able to find the main ideas of paragraphs.

I used the first three activities, along with the Powerpoint, with my entire class of fourth graders. They enjoyed the presentation, and worked through the activities as homework. Then, I gave a district assessment. Most students showed that they were able to understand main ideas. For those who needed more practice, I used the last activity, “Sentences for Finding Main Ideas”, as an intervention with a small group.
What is a Topic?

The topic of a piece of text is the idea that all of the ideas relate back to.

Every piece of text has a topic.

The topic is best expressed in just a few words.

Directions: Read the paragraphs below. Find the topic of each.

#1
The red fox is an interesting creature that lives in our area. Red foxes are very smart and shy. Some people never see them. But they are around! Red foxes will eat whatever they can find. This includes mice and rabbits, but also grasshoppers, crickets, and apples. Foxes can hear very low sounds, and often listen for their prey digging underground.
Topic______/ #2
What is that quick white shape flitting across the barn? Sometimes, people think it is a ghost. But a white shape flying through a barn at night is probably a barn owl. Barn owls live in barns and abandoned buildings. They hunt for their food, mice and rats, at night. Barn owls have good hearing and keen eyesight.
Topic______
#3
Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all? If you hear this cry in the woods at night, you are probably listening to a barred owl. Barred owls like to live near water. They are named for the dark streaks on their chests. Like other owls, barred owls like to eat mice and rats. But barred owls also eat creatures that live in water, like frogs and crayfish.
Topic______/ #4
A fox that climbs trees? It’s true! The common gray fox is the only fox in North America that can climb trees. This fox lives in many different kinds of places, from forests to brushy mountains. Like the red fox, the gray fox eats many different things. Some of its favorites include crickets, cottontail rabbits, corn, and even grass.
Topic______

If you put all four paragraphs together, what topic could describe them all?

Topics and Main Ideas

Often, paragraphs can have the same topic, but different main ideas

Paragraph A / Many people are afraid of bats. However, little brown bats are remarkable creatures. They are only 3 inches long, but can eat up to 600 insects in a single hour! These little bats can live in a variety of habitats, including meadows, forests, and backyards. They are very good fliers and are quite harmless.
Paragraph B / How do little brown bats find their food? They use echolocation. Echolocation is a cool way to hunt! The bats emit (give off) a high-pitched sound. The sound will bounce off insects, and the bats can hear the echo. In this way, bats can hear exactly where their food is flying.
Paragraph C / In the winter, insects are scarce. Bats have an interesting adaptation to survive. They are true hibernators. Their breathing slows down, their heartbeat slows, and their blood changes. Little brown bats come together in large groups to roost in caves.

What is the topic of all three paragraphs?

Write the letter of the paragraph next to the sentence that states its main idea.

Paragraph / Main idea
Bats hibernate to survive in the winter.
Little brown bats are remarkable creatures.
Little brown bats use echolocation to hunt

Finding Main Ideas

The main idea of a piece of text is the most important idea in the text

The main idea includes the topic, plus an important idea about the topic

Read the paragraph below. Notice how it has a main idea.

Sentences for finding main ideas

Directions: The sentences on each page make a paragraph.

Cut out the sentences on the lines

Find the topic and the main idea of the paragraph

  • Think: What is this paragraph mostly about?
  • Think: Does every sentence relate back to this main idea?

Choose the sentence that states the main idea

Organize the sentences in the best order

They can grow to be six feet tall! / Sunflowers have edible seeds.
The sunflower blooms are beautiful in bouquets. / Sunflowers are beautiful flowers with many uses.
Both birds and people enjoy the seeds. / Sunflowers can be dried and used to make wreaths.
The children lounged on comfortable, plush chairs / Fun music blared through the speakers.
Lunch in the cafeteria was amazing! / A buffet featured just about every kind of food imaginable.
Fish swam in the huge fish tank along one wall. / When students finished lunch, they could go to the waterpark to play.
The larva grows and grows. / When it hatches from the egg, the salamander is a tiny larva.
It begins its life as an egg laid in a stream or pond. / Eventually the larva grows lungs so that it can breathe on the land.
Then the full-grown salamander leaves the pond or stream to live under a rock or a log. / The salamander leads an interesting life.
Some animals use camouflage to hide from predators. / Fast animals like the antelope can sprint quickly away from the animals that want to eat them.
Animals like the armadillo have tough armor to keep from being eaten. / Animals protect themselves in many ways.
It will “play dead” so that other animals will go away. / The opossum has an unusual way of protecting itself.

Looking for more about teaching students how to become better readers? Check out these books by Emily Kissner.

  • Find our more about text-based inferences in The Forest AND the Trees: Helping Readers Identify Important Details in Texts and Tests. In this book, you can learn more about helping students use details to understand what they read. With chapters about real-life details, inferences, visualizing, and content area details, you will definitely find resources to use immediately in your own classroom.
  • Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Retelling: Skills for Better Reading, Writing, and Test-Taking examines how to teach summarizing and why it is so difficult for many students.

Both books are available from Heinemann.

Emily Kissner 2008