(upbeat music) - Hi, everyone.

And welcome back to Room 9, our region's largest classroom.

My name is Miss St. Louis, and I'm a teacher at Rogers Elementary School in the Mehlville School District.

And we are located in South St. Louis County.

Today, I'm here to teach a reading lesson that's geared towards students who are in the third grade, but all learners are more than welcome to join and explore along with us.

So, let's get started.

This week we are going to be talking all about main idea.

Now, last week, we talked about main idea as well, and we focused our topic of conversation on fiction text.

This week, we're going to talk about main idea and focus on non-fiction text, those true stories that give us information.

So today we're gonna spend some time talking about what main idea is and investigating how we can use details to figure out what the main idea is.

So what is main idea, you ask?

Well, main idea is the most important idea about a topic.

It's the big idea.

It's what the text is mostly about.

Now when we tell someone the main idea, we wanna tell it to them in a sentence.

So there's a difference between topic and main idea.

Now, topic is usually one or two words that tells me what a book's about, right?

And I might think of topic when I say, hmm, "What's your favorite thing to learn about?"

Can you tell me?

Yeah, so if you say, "space or animals," or you say, "chemistry," right, those are topics.

There's a lot of things that can fall underneath space.

There's a lot that can fall underneath animals, right?

I can think right now ... hmm.

When I think about animals, well, there's farm animals and ocean animals, zoo animals.

And then when I think about zoo animals, I can dive in deeper, right?

And there are giraffes and zebras and lions and tigers.

So a topic is an overarching idea, right?

It's one or two words that tells me what I'm learning about.

The main idea is a full sentence that digs in deep and tells me exactly what that book is teaching me about, right?

So you might have a book that tells me all about the life cycle of a lion, right?

So then, ooh now I know, we're not just talking about animals, we're talking about lions, more specifically about their life cycle, right?

So the journey of a lion from birth all the way to death.

So a main idea statement is a single sentence or sometimes it might be two, maybe you have a really long book, that tells me what that book is all about.

And so it might help us to talk about those supporting details.

So today we're gonna kinda talk about supporting details, but we're gonna really dive into those tomorrow, so come back for that.

But the supporting details tell us who, what, where, when, why, and how.

So looking at those supporting details can help us to figure out, "What is the main idea?

What is this book trying to teach me about, tell me about, convince me to do," right?

"What is the purpose of this book?"

So that main idea, the big idea, has those details that stand off on it, right?

We think about that as a chair or a stool.

The surface that we sit on, that's that main idea, right?

This is what it's all about, but we can't sit without having those details to support us, the legs of that chair.

Those details help to keep us standing up.

Okay.

So here's some tips to finding the main idea.

We read the title, we read the subheadings, we look at the first or last sentence, right?

You guys might know that from writing, when you are writing non-fiction stories or paragraphs, you have a topic sentence that's usually towards the beginning, right?

And you have a conclusion sentence that kind of tells me and wraps up my thoughts.

Same with our books, right?

The introduction and conclusion sentences that we write are the same things that authors write when they write books.

They introduce us to a topic, and then they close out that topic.

So look at those.

And ask yourself, "What is the text about," right?

And remember, you wanna answer in a complete sentence, not just one or two words.

So today, we're gonna practice, and I'm gonna show you a series of three ideas or three things.

Those are my details.

You're gonna figure out the main idea.

What am I trying to get you to think about with these three topics?

Right?

So, let's try one together.

I have toothbrushes, mouthwash, and toothpaste.

What do those things make you think about?

Yes.

They make you think about your teeth, right?

But teeth is a topic, right?

So what can I make this into, if I'm gonna say the main idea?

What could I say in a complete sentence?

Ooh, these items tell you all about how to take care of your teeth.

These items, the dentist shows you about how to take care of your teeth, right?

So these are things that we use for how to take care of our teeth, right?

So not just teeth, that's a topic, but how to take care of our teeth, that's the main idea.

Ready to try another one?

All right.

I've got some chalk, crayons, and some markers.

Hmm.

What do these make you think about?

Yeah, coloring, right?

So that's my topic.

What could my main idea sentence be?

There are many different ways to color.

Okay.

There are many different coloring tools sold at the store.

That was a tricky sentence.

Right?

So, remember, when I'm talking about main idea, I want to think more about telling it in a complete sentence, right?

You guys are doing great.

Let's try another one.

Move those tools out of the way.

Now I have some hand sanitizer, a thermometer, and a mask.

What could the main idea be here?

There are many things that can help to keep you safe and healthy.

That's a great main idea, right?

Because if I'm thinking about this, right, I can go in and I can write a paragraph about ways to keep me healthy, right?

So you've already given me my topic sentence, my main idea.

There are many ways to help keep yourself healthy.

And then I can go in, and say, "First we use hand sanitizer to help keep our hands clean," right?

And then I'm gonna continue on to talk about my thermometer and my mask.

Okay.

And at the end, I wrap it all up by telling you my main idea again, right?

Sometimes, just in a different way.

Excellent job.

You guys are rocking, figuring out how to find the main idea.

Let's try another one.

I have a remote, popcorn, and a DVD.

Hmm.

What does this make you think of?

Movie night.

Absolutely.

This makes me think about movie night.

Hmm.

How many of you have had a movie night lately?

Pretty fun, huh?

But movie night, that would be my topic.

What could my main idea be?

There are many things you need to have a fun movie night.

That's a great topic sentence.

Can you think of any others?

These are the tools to have a great movie night.

Excellent job.

Ooh, let's try another one.

I have a mug, I have hot chocolate mix, and I have marshmallows.

Hmm.

What does it make you think of?

Yeah, hot chocolate, right?

So there's my topic.

What could my main idea be?

Here's how to make hot chocolate.

There are many steps to making hot chocolate.

There are a few things you will need to make hot chocolate, right?

So we can phrase it in different ways.

Remember, when you're thinking about main idea, the exact formation of your sentence, right, the words that you use, can be a little different from person to person, right?

But we wanna make sure that we're making our thoughts clear, right?

What are we going to be talking about?

Very good.

Let's try one last one.

I have some tennis balls, I have a leash, and I have dog treats.

Hmm.

What do you think this could be all about?

How to take care of your dog.

That would be a great one.

What else could we be talking about?

Things you need if you're going to buy a dog, right?

So these might be the starting tools if you're gonna get a puppy, right?

Here's what you should go off and buy.

And then you can go off and you can tell people what they would need if they were gonna get a puppy, or how to take care of their dog.

Speaking of dogs, we might have a friend join us.

Let's see.

We've been working on our training.

Up.

Up.

She's sitting.

You can't see her.

She loves those treats.

All right.

So boys and girls, today, we talked all about how to find main idea by looking at the details.

Now later this week, we're gonna take this information and really apply it to a book, using that same thinking process, looking at the details and asking ourselves, "Hmm, what is this text about?

What are these details trying to teach me about," right?

"What does the author want me to learn from reading this information?"

Right.

So main idea, let's remember is the most important idea about a topic.

It's the big idea.

It tells us what the text is mostly about.

The thing we know about main idea is that we want to tell about the main idea using a complete sentence.

One or two words is the topic.

That tells me what that sentence is about, or not the sentence, what that story or book would be about.

The topic might be animals or dinosaurs.

Main idea tells me exactly what I'm going to be learning about, right?

I might learn about the history of dinosaurs.

I might learn about the life cycle of a butterfly, right?

I might learn about, hmm, lots of different things.

What are some things that you guys have learned about lately?

Ooh, learning lots.

Remember, it's always a great idea to have one or two non-fiction books hanging around with you, because we can learn a ton from these new non-fiction books.

So I challenge you, this week, if you haven't already found a non-fiction book to look at, try going to your school library to find one, or to your local library, to see if you can find a non-fiction book to read.

So, boys and girls, today, we talked about main idea.

Tomorrow, come back as we dive into those details.

But until then, I think it's time we do a little bit of math.

Off we go.

(hair dryer blowing) - Oh, hello, boys and girls.

I didn't see you there.

I'm busy trying to get ready.

How have you been?

Great.

Did you have a good reading lesson?

Awesome.

I'm sure you did.

That Miss St. Louis sure knows what she's doing when it comes to reading.

So, welcome.

Here, you're here to see me.

And my name is what?

That's right, Mrs.

Brewer.

And I am a third grade teacher at Gordon Bush Elementary School in the East St. Louis School District.

So today, boys and girls, I'm sorry, but you kind of caught me while I was in the middle of getting ready.

Wait.

Yeah, I'll be ready in about 15 minutes.

Yeah, it won't take me that much longer.

Okay.

Boys and girls, I'm getting ready go somewhere with my kids.

So they're yelling for me right now, wanting to know if I am almost ready.

So what's something you heard me tell them?

Right, that I'd be ready in about 15 minutes, right?

Does that mean right now, boys and girls, I'm gonna set my timer and in exactly 15 minutes I'll be ready?

No, it doesn't.

What happens if it would take me 13 minutes?

Would that be okay?

Yeah.

Would that be about 15 minutes?

Yeah, we know if we would count up 13, 14, 15, I would be ready two minutes sooner, right?

But what would happen if it took me 18 minutes?

Would that be okay?

Well, yeah, if we count up from 15 to 18, we'd have 16, 17, 18, right?

So how many more minutes would I have, boys and girls?

You're right.

Just three minutes over.

Is that a big deal?

No, we're just gonna run to the mall to shop for some clothes for them.

It's not really that big of a deal if it takes me a little less or a little more, does it?

No, it really doesn't matter.

But what I had given them is an estimate, around 15 minutes, right?

Didn't mean exact, but it was okay to give them an estimate here, wasn't it?

Yeah, we didn't need an exact answer.

They just needed to know round about, okay, approximately, we'll be ready to go in 15 minutes.

Now, what if I said an hour, and it took me, let's stick with 15 minutes, and it took me an hour.

Is that close?

No, that's probably not a really good estimate, is it?

15 minutes to a whole hour?

That's 45 minutes longer than I told them.

Okay.

So anytime we give an estimate, boys and girls, we have to think, is it reasonable?

15 minutes?

All I'm gonna do is dry my hair, throw it into a ponytail.

Absolutely.

That's reasonable, right?

But if it takes me an hour, 15 minutes is definitely not a reasonable estimate, an explanation too, to how long it'll take me to get ready.

Probably have some explaining to do if it took me an hour.

So, let's think, boys and girls, about estimate.

Have you ever made an estimate before?

Well, I am gonna show you something, boys and girls, and since we are around Easter, approximately closer to Easter here, okay, have you ever seen anything that looks like this, boys and girls, where it says, "Guess how many candies are in the jar?"

Have you ever done anything like this before?

Some of you are saying, "yes."

Some of you are saying, "no."

Okay.

Well, if you're guessing how many candies are in the jar, what would you say first of all?

Okay, so I'm hearing some pretty good estimates, 'cause what are we doing?

Do we know for sure?

No, we don't, do we?

So let's talk about how you came about your answer?

Okay.

Does it seem reasonable?

Okay.

How do you know your answer's reasonable?

What if I said 3?

Would 3 have been a reasonable guess?

Why not?

There was someone out there shouting, "No, more than 3."

How do we know it has to be more than 3?

I just heard someone else say, "If you just look at the jar, I can count more than 3."

If you look right here, right under the tab, I see 3 red ones right in a row.

So I know there's already a lot more than 3.

These look like gumballs in here, more than 3 gumballs in the jar, right?

So how could we figure out a good estimate here?

We have to have some type of strategy to come to an estimate, don't we?

Otherwise, we'd wind up with an answer like 6.

Well, when we make estimations, we can't just say any random thing.

We do have to have some kind of strategy behind what we do.

Okay?

So I know some people that look at this jar, because we're really trying to find the volume here, aren't we?

And to find the volume in mathematics, we do have a formula for value.

I know some of my math friends out here are definitely counting how many gum drops, or sorry, gum drops, gum balls do we have across the bottom?

Well, if I look just across the bottom, I see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, I'm gonna estimate 7, 'cause I kind of see, if you look at the bottom row I see half of an orange and half of a pink.

So I know it's about 7 gumballs wide.

How tall is it?

Hmm, so if I count up, I would say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, about 6 gumballs high, 7 gumballs wide.

So if I try to find the area right here, of 6 times 7, that would be what?

42.

Right?

So now I wanna figure out how many rows, but see that's just that front piece.

We know when we find area, it's flat.

So now I wanna figure out how many rows deep we go.

Hmm.

I really can't count on the side, can I?

No, but I'm assuming that this side and that side would be the same kind of as up front, 'cause it's round, right?

So I would say it's 1, 2, 3, about 6 rows deep.

So if I took 42 times 6.

Hmm.

If I took 2 times 6, I know that's 12, and 40 times 6 is 240.

So, 240 plus 12 would be 252.

Okay.

So, boys and girls, do you think 252 would be a good estimate for how many candies are in this jar?

It could, huh?

We had a strategy we used, right?

Figured out how many in a row, kind of like an array, right?

That's basically what we did.

We figured out it's 7 gum drops.

I keep saying gum drops, they're gumballs, guys.

I don't know why I keep saying gum drops.

We have 7 gum drops long, 6 tall, and we figured out it might be about 6 rows of these, right?

6 times 7, times 6.

Okay.

So 252, it really isn't a bad estimate, is it?

Mm-mm.

It's close, close as we can, right?

So how would we find the exact answer of that?

That would be kind of fun, right?

We got to open it up and take out all the gumballs and we have to count them all, right?

Right?

So that would be a way we find the exact answer.

Do you wanna know what the exact answer is in that jar, boys and girls?

There were 234 gumballs in that jar.

And our estimate was 252.

Was that, that far off, 234 to 252?

No, we were only 18 gumballs off.

But when we're talking 200 and some odd gumballs, I don't think 18s that bad to be off, do you, boys and girls?

No.

But why were we able to get close?

Because, we had a strategy, right?

So this week, boys and girls, we're gonna be talking about estimation, and we're gonna have to learn some strategies to use to help give good estimates.

Okay.

So you guys said, me getting ready giving an estimate would be okay, right?

When else would we use estimates?

So I want you, boys and girls, if you think we could use an estimate for this, for whatever I'm gonna say, I want you to dab.

And if you think that we can't, I want you to, hmm, what's a good one we haven't done besides dab?

Okay.

You pick your own dance move for a no.

How about that?

I heard some great answers out here.

If it's yes, we dab.

If it's no, you're gonna pick your own action.

Okay.

It can just be a thumbs down, or another dance move that you like to do.

Okay.

So what about if we are measuring something, if we are building that bird house, and they ask, "How long does your board need to be?"

And you say, "eh, around about five inches."

Is that an okay time to do an estimate?

Yes or no?

Absolutely, no.

We need an exact measurement, right?

What about if we were trying to take some money to the store?

Okay.

And we were rounding everything up.

Is that an okay to have an estimate?

Yeah.

It's okay to have an estimate.

Say, "It should be at least $50."

Okay?

So hopefully it's less, or hopefully we're rounding up and it will be less than $50.

What about if we're bringing treats in for the class at school?

Is it okay to estimate or not?

I see somebody saying, "absolutely not."

If you're bringing in cupcakes, I better get a cupcake.

So we better have an exact amount.

What about estimating how much candy to buy for a parade.

Okay.

Would that be a good time to use an estimate?

Absolutely.

It would be a great time to do an estimate, because we don't know how many people we're gonna see, so we have to estimate how many people.

We don't have an exact number.

So, boys and girls, there are times when we can use an estimate, and times when we can't.

So this week, we're gonna be talking about some strategies to use and some scenarios where we will use estimates.

And speaking of estimates, boys, and girls, I better go.

Otherwise, my 15 minutes is not gonna be a reasonable estimate to get ready for my kids.

I'll see you tomorrow.

Have a good night.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Teaching in Room 9 is made possible with support of Bank of America, Dana Brown Charitable Trust, Emerson, and viewers like you.

(upbeat music)