MAIN IDEA Main Idea • • • • What is it? How do we find it? How do we remember it? Let’s try it. What is main idea? • Main idea tells what a story is mostly about. • When looking for main idea we must think of what FINALLY happened in the story. How do we find the main idea? • Let’s use our hands! How do we find the main idea? • The thumb stands for who. • The who of a story is very important, without knowing who the story is about we can’t find the main idea. How do we find the main idea? • The pointer finger stands for did what. • What did the main character finally do? How do we find the main idea? • The middle finger stands for where. • Where did the main character do it? How do we find the main idea? • The ring finger stands for when. • When did the main character do it? How do we find the main idea? • The pinky stands for why. • Why did the main character do it? How do we remember main idea? • • • • • • • Remembering is easy!!! Just look at your fingers. Thumb - Who? Pointer - Did what? Middle finger - Where? Ring finger - When? Pinky - Why? Let’s try it!! • Using the book Too Many Tamales and our five fingers let’s find the main idea. • Remember to think about the word FINALLY. • What finally happened in the story? Too Many Tamales • Who? • Maria and her cousins. Too Many Tamales • Did what? • Ate all the tamales. Too Many Tamales • Where? • In the kitchen. Too Many Tamales • When? • On Christmas day. Too Many Tamales • Why? • To try to find Maria’s mother’s ring. Too Many Tamales • Using all the information, write one sentence that tells the main idea of the story. • Maria and her cousins ate all the tamales on Christmas, in the kitchen, because she was trying to find her mother’s ring that she had lost. Fair Use Guidelines • Certain materials are included under the fair use exemption of the U.S.Copyright Law and have been prepared according to the educational fair use guidelines.
