The Main Idea: Hot Air Balloons

To assess the students understanding of main ideas, we read I Fly Hot-Air Balloons from Reading A-Z. As we read, we charted important details from each section on a Multi-Flow Map. Once finished, we discussed what all of those important details had in common and what the author wanted the students to learn from the text, or the main idea. The students then had to explain the main idea of the story in their own words. They wrote the main idea on a basket that they made out of construction paper. They then created a hot-air balloon to attach to the basket.