Send page to a Friend December 2005 Literacy Games and Activities Finding the Main Idea: It’s important that our students we tutor be able to find the “main idea” in stories and paragraphs, and one way to help them is with a Graphic Organizer (a diagram or picture that helps organize ideas). After reading a story or paragraph together, talk with your student and see if he or she can figure out what the main idea was that the author was trying to tell them. Then notice all the other sentences, and talk about them as details that support the main idea.   Click here and print the ice cream worksheet, and use it as a visual representation of your conversation. Have them write the “main idea” where it says “topic” and the supporting detail ideas on the scoops. Go back and read the story again, and make sure your main idea and supporting details are correct!