Identifying the Main Idea — Grades 2–3

Featuring Sofia and Canela

Help English learners find the topic, the main idea, and supporting details, and then prove it.

Watch It. Students watch a free animated video where Sofia finds the main idea in her own story. Three stop points with sentence frames keep everyone thinking.

Teach It. 17 Google Slides walk students through the skill step by step: you model it with "Busy Squirrels," then guide students through the hayride text.

Read It. Students read "What I Saw on the Hayride," mark the topic, main idea, and details, and build the Main Idea Table.

Prove It. Students read "The Corn Maze" on their own and answer 6 questions in a self-grading Google Form or on paper.

What's included:

• 17 Google Slides teaching slides (make-a-copy link) plus a PDF of the slides for printing or offline teaching
• Teacher Guide with a 2-day plan (about 25 minutes per session)
• 7-page Student Packet
• Vocabulary Fluency Drill
• Main Idea Table organizer and sentence frames
• Self-grading Google Form (6 questions)
• Answer keys
• Data sheet with a score-to-percent chart
• Learning target and language objective
• "How did I do?" student self-check on the Prove It page
• Start Here page with links and Terms of Use

Made for small groups of English learners. Works for whole class too.

© 2026 Rising ELL Readers LLC. For educational purposes only.

By purchasing, you agree to the Rising ELL Readers Terms of Use.