Main Idea and Supporting Details Activity Sentence Sort BUNDLE Graphic Organizer

Are your students having trouble identifying the main idea of a paragraph if it's not the first sentence, or super obvious? These main idea and detail sentence sorts can help! Your students will sort sentences from a paragraph on a graphic organizer template.

WHY THIS ACTIVITY HELPS:

These activities are meant to solidify your students' understanding of main idea and details because they require students to use higher-order thinking skills to determine the main idea.

✂️How the Main Idea and Details Sort Activity Works:✂️

1. Students will cut apart and read each of the five sentences for the paragraph.
2. Then, they will determine which one is the main idea and which four are the supporting details. (This requires them to use higher-order thinking skills!)
3. Students will sort the sentences on their main idea and details mat.
4. Optional: Have students do the response prompt to justify their answer: How do you know the details support the main idea?

This BUNDLE includes all of my sets of Main Idea and Details sorts. Each set has 20 paragraphs so there are a total of 80 paragraphs.

Here are the four sets included:

• Set 1: Animals (Koalas, Elephants, Pandas, Tigers, & Zebras)
• Set 2: Sea Animals (Sea Turtles, Starfish, Jellyfish, Clownfish, & Seahorses)
• Set 3: Severe Weather (Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Blizzards, Earthquakes, & Thunderstorms)
• Set 4: National Parks (Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Olympic, & Glacier)

✏️Easy Differentiation Ideas:✏️

• Since each topic includes four paragraphs, students can organize their paragraphs into a four-paragraph report.
• 4th and 5th graders can gather more information about the topic in order to add additional details to the paragraphs.
• To challenge students, give them the sentences from TWO paragraphs at a time!

TEACHERS LIKE YOU SAID...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐My students loved using these sorts to find the main idea and supporting details in a text! This was helpful as they worked to clarify how to determine that the main idea encompasses the entire idea of the text and the details are all support relating back to the main idea. Great resource!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐This was awesome practice in my small groups for finding the main idea and details. Students were really able to see how the main idea can be supported by details.

**Updated to also INCLUDE DIGITAL (Google Slides for Google Classroom) version of every sentence sort**

You may also be interested in:

• Cause and Effect Sentence Sort BUNDLE

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