Finding the Main Idea Worksheets

This comprehensive resource includes 6 detailed worksheets that explore the main idea’s topic and supporting detail. Featuring a collection of exercises, this resource aims to enhance students’ reading comprehension, critical thinking and analytical skills. An experienced teacher has carefully crafted them to challenge students while providing the necessary scaffolding to support their learning journey.

The worksheets include the following main idea activities:

• Using a word bank to fill in the main idea of a group of words.
• Determining the main idea in a small non-fiction paragraph.
• Matching detail to its main idea.
• Looking at pictures and the main idea and determining the details that support the main idea.
• Grouping sentences into ‘main idea’ or ‘detail’.

This worksheet pack includes answer sheets.

Main Idea Activities for the Classroom

Along with these worksheets, here are some other great main idea activities for the classroom:

1. Main idea graphic organisers – provide students with main idea graphic organizers specifically for identifying the main idea.
2. Main idea collaborative wall – provide students with colourful sticky notes or index cards. After reading a story or passage, have students write the main idea on sticky notes.
3. Main idea interactive game – have students determine the main idea and details in small fiction texts.

Download Worksheets Today

Use the dropdown icon on the Download button to choose between the PDF or editable Google Slides version of this resource.

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