2. Main Idea
• What is it?
• How do we find it?
• How do we remember it?
• Let’s try it.
3. What is main idea?
• Main idea tells what a story is mostly
about.
• When looking for main idea we must
think of what FINALLY happened in
the story.
4. How do we find the main
idea?
• Let’s use our hands!
5. How do we find the main
idea?
• The thumb stands for who.
• The who of a story is very important,
without knowing who the story is
about we can’t find the main idea.
6. How do we find the main
idea?
• The pointer finger stands for did
what.
• What did the main character finally
do?
7. How do we find the main
idea?
• The middle finger stands for where.
• Where did the main character do it?
8. How do we find the main
idea?
• The ring finger stands for when.
• When did the main character do it?
9. How do we find the main
idea?
• The pinky stands for why.
• Why did the main character do it?
10.
11. How do we remember main
idea?
• Remembering is easy!!!
• Just look at your fingers.
• Thumb - Who?
• Pointer - Did what?
• Middle finger - Where?
• Ring finger - When?
• Pinky - Why?
12. Let’s try it!!
• Using the book Too Many Tamales and
our five fingers let’s find the main
idea.
• Remember to think about the word
FINALLY.
• What finally happened in the story?
18. Too Many Tamales
• Using all the information, write one
sentence that tells the main idea of
the story.
• Maria and her cousins ate all the
tamales on Christmas, in the
kitchen, because she was trying
to find her mother’s ring that she
had lost.
19. Fair Use Guidelines
• Certain materials are included under the
fair use exemption of the U.S.Copyright Law
and have been prepared according to the
educational fair use guidelines.