Firemen friends, Main idea, and a freebie

We've been working on main idea this past week with our Treasures story "Fighting the Fire."  We made an anchor chart towards the end of the week to go over what we had learned about main idea. I saw an idea online to help the kids really understand the main idea. The kids traced their handprint on a piece of paper. After reading a story, they write the main idea on the palm of their hand. The details that support the main idea go on the fingers.

 We also made some firemen and firewomen to go along with the story. I think they turned out really cute. I just freehanded the hat and used a template from the mailbox for the badge. I let the kids do their own hair.

 The flames are from a resource from Teaching Oasis. We came up with the main idea and the kids wrote supporting details on their flame.

Here's a freebie for you. I've been having a hard time keeping up with everything I have to do. We are going through a new evaluation process. We have a new math series and my grade level started doing the Daily 5 this year. I am a little overwhelmed at this point so I made myself a to-do list to keep in my planner and lesson plan book. Feel free to grab a copy by heading over to my blog. Click on the picture to head straight there.