📗 7 Fiction Texts to Find the Main Idea

Are you currently teaching your students about the main idea and supporting details? This interactive main idea activity is the perfect way for your students to show their knowledge and skills in this area when it comes to finding the main idea in a fiction text.

Identifying the main idea helps children better understand the story they are reading. It allows them to grasp the author’s central theme or message and how various plot elements, characters, and events contribute to the central idea.

💻 Interactive Activity for Reading Groups

This interactive activity is perfect for your small group work during rotational work. For each of the 7 fiction texts available, students must identify the main idea plus three bits of supporting detail for each story. To take this further, you can use this text for activities that support students understanding of fiction texts.

✅ Download Today!

This resource is available to download in Google Slides. Please be sure to open in Edit mode, not Presentation mode. Students drag and drop and use the colour tool to complete each activity.

This resource was created by Lindsey Phillips, a teacher in Michigan and a Teach Starter collaborator.

More main idea resources to support your main idea lesson planning:

teaching resource

Finding The Main Idea - Comprehension Task (Turtles)

A task to use when teaching your students reading comprehension strategies.

teaching resource

Main Idea and Details Burger Template

Practice finding the main idea and supporting details of a piece of text with this hamburger template.

teaching resource

Finding the Main Idea - Graphic Organizer Templates

Teach students how to find the main idea of a text using one of these one-page graphic organizers.