Main Idea!!

Hoping to get this unit up on TpT soon....but had to share some fun pix from my observation this week. I did a big focus on main idea this week....which in first grade can sometimes be a challenging skill. We did A LOT with this this week including: starting small with ~tri-bond games (thinking how 3 things go together), matching houses to "Main Idea Street" if the house's supporting details matched the street sign/main idea, and reading books (of course) to find and agree upon the MI and supporting details. Of course we threw in the BrainPopjr movie too because we LOVE Annie and Moby!! The books I used for the most part this week were both on trees -- one narrative, one expository. The kids LOVED both. The nonfiction book we did first. We talked about the book as we went along and I did a lot of think alouds. At the end they wrote on a post it what they thought the MI was, and we discussed our answers together (and of course WHERE the author put the MI). Thursday I began to read the narrative....but stopped at the cliffhanger moment of the story so they could make predictions....and to peak their interest for the observation Friday ;). On Friday we did the main idea bags....but with the props in each bag I also gave each group sentences to match up to the items and then to a poster in order to see if they could discrim. between the m.i. and the details. Each group presented to the class. I then finished the book...which they loved....and then gave them their own (indep. practice) page where they had to sort out sentences from the story and glue them in the lapbook/folder I created for them. It was a great day, and I think the kiddos have a much better hold on Main Idea and supporting details now. I was SUPER proud of them ♥!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am feeling much better now too...after ~12 hours of sleep last night ;)!!!!!!!!!