Do your students struggle to find the main idea and supporting details of a paragraph, passage, or story? These short fall-themed reading passages with graphic organizers make it easy for students to pinpoint the main idea. Supporting details are strategically placed so that students can easily practice identifying those small details that support the main idea. With repeated practice, your students will eventually be able to explain how the details of the passage support the main idea.

These PRINT & DIGITAL fall main idea practice activities include high-interest nonfiction reading passages that will spark the interest of students and encourage active participation and learning. The main idea in these passages can be found in the first, second, or third sentence of each paragraph.

In this download, you will get:

20 Fall-Themed Printable Nonfiction Reading Passages with Graphic Organizers
Google Slides Digital Version
Answer Keys

Engaging and Interesting Topics That Make Learning Fun!

Vibrant Colors
Autumn Adaptations
Seasons of Change
Celebrating Veterans
Amazing Lights
Got the Blues?
Frost Flowers
Forever Green
Sleepy Slumber
Trick-or-Treat
Stirring Winds
Ancient Celebrations
Squirrely Facts
Labor Day
Migrating South
Giving Thanks
Harvest Moon
Break Time
Monarch Butterflies
Pumpkins Everywhere

A scaffolded approach!

When teaching main idea and supporting details, it’s important to start small and basic. With this resource, you can provide your students with short, easy-to-read paragraphs with an obvious main idea and easy-to-find supporting details to choose from. This strategy helps students get in the habit of focusing on what the text is mostly about. It also allows students to pinpoint key ideas that support and help describe the main idea.

This resource is the second in a series of practice packs. The main idea is mostly found in the first sentence, but some passages include the main idea in the second or third sentence of the paragraph. If you're looking for an easier version with the main idea found in the first sentence, you may want to check out Main Idea & Supporting Details Worksheets and Graphic Organizers Print & Digital. It is the perfect resource for beginners just starting to learn how to find the main idea and supporting details of a non-fiction reading passage.

You can use these main idea practice activities as:

individual printable worksheets
a printable practice packet
digital Google Slides assignments

⭐ The digital version of this resource was created in Google Slides. Each reading passage comes with its own Google link so that you can digitally assign these activities individually to your students.

These activities are perfect for:

whole group instruction
morning work
small groups
independent desk work
assessments
early finishers
homework
sub plans, and so much more!

Suggestions for Use:

Depending on how much your students know about finding the main idea will depend on how you use these non-fiction reading passages. Third-grade students may need modeling of the activity before completing one on their own. Fourth-grade students should easily be able to find the main idea and supporting details after a brief introduction. Fifth-grade students could use these passages to review third and fourth-grade skills on finding the main idea and supporting details.

Teachers like you said…

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This is great practice for determining main idea and identifying key details. It gives clear directions that are easy for everyone to follow and has a great layout that everyone understood. We were struggling with main idea and key details so we worked on this and it seemed to click for almost everyone. – Krystal V.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Finding the main idea and supporting details is difficult for my students, but these passages were high-interest and the students enjoyed reading and completing the assignments. We were able to work in small groups and had some good conversations about a few new topics! The Google slides were easy to assign and for the students to complete. – Connie S.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I was not in love with our reading curriculum, especially since their scope and sequence differed from our district/school's pacing guide of teaching the RL/RI standards. So glad I found this supplemental resource for main idea and supporting details! Bonus that it's fall-themed, which made it festive and engaging for my students. – Ashlyn W.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I enjoyed using this packet of materials! It allowed my students to see main idea and the supporting details because we used our crayons to visually show this. I see that after using this many of my students added better details to their actual stories, too! That was an added bonus I did not expect! Thanks for a great variety of topics to reinforce this skill. – Jennifer O.

Extension Activity:

RI.4.2 asks students to not only determine the main idea and supporting details but to also summarize the text. Once students have completed the activity, you could have them use their web including the main idea and three supporting details to write a summary of the text.

⭐ Bundle and save for a discount! ⭐

Purchase the Main Idea and Supporting Details Year-Long Bundle to get this pack plus 4 more resources that build on the other. Each packet in the bundle gradually gets harder and scaffolded instruction of main idea takes place.

Supports Common Core Standards (CCSS):

RI.3.2

RI.4.2

RI.5.2

Fall Main Idea and Supporting Details Activities Graphic Organizers Central Idea

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