Central Message: Keep a few sticky notes blank when you laminate the anchor chart. You can then add more messages with your students after you read a book.

Learn how to help your 1st grade students identify the central message or lesson of a story through lots of modeling in the classroom. One way is through author studies. As you read the books with your first graders, talk about what message the author is sharing & what lesson they want you to learn. Then you can list a lesson or central message for each book on a poster. Determining the Central Message (RL 1.2) Plus a FREE download! (freebie)

Central message anchor chart first grade

Helping kiddos identify the central message or lesson of a story is a tricky skill, Here's how we practice through LOTS of modeling in the classroom! To get started with Central Message, we do an author study with Kevin Henkes books. His books are so great for the beginning of the year with the messages they deliver about friendship and being kind and following rules! They lend themselves perfectly to this unit. As we read each book, we talk about what message the author was sharing with us…

Common Core requires third graders to begin to find the central message of their fictional texts. This means the theme or message will be written in a short sentence. Instead of “Friendship” students will have to choose a phrase like...

Theme, central message, moral of the story... cover it with these anchor charts.

Central Message Theme Main Idea The Stories Julian Tells