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The Brown Bag Teacher

Teach the Children. Love the Children. Change the World.

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March 15, 2013

Main Idea Freebies

All year in reading, we have talked about main idea with our friends, but it has only been this week that we have zoomed in on identifying the topic, main idea, and supporting details of a text. This is such a hard concept for our firsties and we need lots of practice and graphic organizers.

Life in 1st grade is definitely hands-on, so we loved using Simply Creative Teaching’s Main Idea Mystery Bags. Each bag contained 4 “clues”. Throughout the day when a friend had exceptional behavior, they were able to choose an idea from a bag. Once all four items were pulled, we put the clues together to discover the mystery!

This graphic organizer (from my Differentiated Graphic Organizer pack) has also been a huge scaffold to my students. We’ve been using the organizer with the sentence starter “The author is trying to teach me…” and it’s really helped my friends consider the BIG idea of the whole article or chapter.   You can snag this organizer FREE from Google Drive here.

BrainPop is, of course, one of our favorites. Moby is just so silly and the content is out of this world. I love the vocabulary my students are exposed to, and the after-video quizzes are just-right practice. Plus, my friends can sing the intro song like no-one’s business!

Next week, we will continue with this concept as we begin learning about the desert (we’ve also learned about the tundra and rainforest). To help our friends with this, I have made a series of non-fiction passages about desert animals (great for whole-group or guided reading instruction). You can grab the organizer and sample passage for FREE on TpT. All you need to do is click here and then, click the green ‘Preview’ button on the left of the screen!

After branching from what we know (the desert), we’re moving to all things animals – a first-grade favorite!

Oh goodness, friends. It is Friday. I am signing praises and going to bed now. So tell me, what are your favorite main idea resources? I’d love to hear your ideas! (For other FREE classroom resources and freebies, sign-up here for teaching ideas to land in your inbox each month. )

Join me for weekly classroom updates and free resources that are just-right for your guided math classroom!

Sweet! Thanks so much for joining me. Now check your email to confirm your address & snag your freebies. Happy Teaching! -Catherine

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Filed Under: 1st Grade, Reading/Literacy Tagged With: 1st Grade, Freebie

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rachel Seymour says

    March 16, 2013 at 12:53 am

    Love the rainbows! I almost ordered that Animal Teeth book through Scholastic this week, but I didn't. Now I wish I had!!

    Thanks for the Main Idea freebie! Love it! 🙂

    Rachel
    A-B-Seymour

    Reply
  2. jivey says

    March 16, 2013 at 12:58 am

    How sweet of her!! Wow!! One more reason to looooove blogging!
    Jivey
    ideas by jivey

    Reply
  3. The Polished Teacher says

    March 16, 2013 at 1:51 am

    How cute did that rainbow turn out? Love it!

    How sweet of Kelly to send you those books. I am definitely going to get the teeth book. I have seen so many fantastic activities to go along with it!

    The iSchool sounds very interesting. I can't imagine that they work that long and get paid for working late! Crazy!

    Thanks for sharing the great math apps! The ocean one is adorable!

    ThePolishedTeacher

    Reply
  4. Eclectic Educating says

    March 16, 2013 at 3:04 am

    I love Illuminations, but did not know they had free apps. Thank you so much for sharing. I will definitely be checking that out! Hope you get some much needed rest!

    Amy
    Eclectic Educating

    Reply
  5. Jenny says

    March 16, 2013 at 4:37 am

    I love the rainbow on the black background. It is a simple idea, but it looks great!

    Enjoy your weekend!
    Jenny
    Suntans and Lesson Plans

    Reply
  6. Heather says

    March 16, 2013 at 4:48 am

    Recess debriefing sounds like a great idea. I agree that most issues stem from recess. I'm blessed in that I NEVER, EVER have to do recess duty. (Our amazing aides do all the duties.) So, I'm sometimes unaware of playground issues until a student or parent tells me!

    Heather
    All the Dots

    Reply
  7. Kelly says

    March 16, 2013 at 5:47 pm

    You are so sweet! I'm so glad you like the books 🙂 I'm in awe of this iSchool & the presenter's thoughts on teachers & school. I definitely think we need more of that! The recess debriefing is genius – can't wait to use it. We have been having so many problems at recess lately, and this is just what I need. Thank you! 🙂

    Kelly
    First Grade Fairytales

    Reply
  8. Mrs. Leeby says

    March 16, 2013 at 10:20 pm

    Thanks for sharing and I L-O-V-E those rainbows!

    Hugs!
    Irene
    Learning With Mrs. Leeby

    Reply
  9. First Grade Buddies says

    March 19, 2013 at 12:54 am

    Our kiddos can always use more practice with main idea! Thank you!
    Tamra and Sarah

    Reply
  10. Kate says

    March 19, 2013 at 1:09 am

    It was a really interesting PD. I have not heard of Responsive Classroom but will definitely look into it. Thanks, Brittany!

    Reply
  11. Terri Paulson-Sasaki says

    March 19, 2013 at 12:43 pm

    I love those rainbows, adorable.

    Terri
    The First Grade Princess

    Reply
  12. ellen says

    April 5, 2013 at 3:49 am

    I love your passages for reading and writing about main idea and details. We are studying habitats too! I would love to buy some more of your habitat and animal sheets that are like the camel. Could you let me know if you have them for sale in your tpt store or if I could buy some to use. Thank you so much! Love your ideas! ellenbel5@yahoo.com

    Reply

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My name is Catherine Reed, and I am in my 8th year in elementary life, residing in small-town, Kentucky.  I student taught in 1st grade and never ...

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Sweet! Thanks so much for joining me. Now check your email to confirm your address & snag your freebies. Happy Teaching! -Catherine

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Join Me!

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Sweet! Thanks so much for joining me. Now check your email to confirm your address & snag your freebies. Happy Teaching! -Catherine

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