This identifying theme activity helps 3rd to 5th grade students match short stories to their themes and back them up with text details. Answer key included.
Students read 12 short fable cards in this determining theme activity for 3rd to 5th Grade, match each to a theme, and cite a detail. Answer key included.
A Smarter Balanced (CAASPP / SBAC) 5th grade ELA practice test workbook for teachers, with a pretest, skill practice for all 24 standards, mixed review and 2 full-length practice tests. Answer key included, so test prep is ready to go.
This comparing themes of two stories activity for 3rd-5th grade turns story pairs into a fun matching game, with a graphic organizer, practice page, and answer key included.
This determining theme graphic organizers activity helps 3rd to 5th grade students find the lesson in a story, a play and a poem, then practice with fables. Answer key included.
This identifying literary elements activity has students sort 16 element cards into poem, drama, and prose. Made for 3rd to 5th grade, with a practice page and answer key included.
Using RL.5.3 Fifth Grade Common Core Lesson, students compareand contrast two characters usingspecific details in the text.
Using Characters Sketch Activity, students describe in depth a character,setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text.
This finding story elements activity has 3rd to 5th grade partners compare two short stories and sort ten Story Cards as mostly similar or mostly different. Answer key included.
This character comparison activity gives 4th and 5th Grade readers a story, 18 detail cards and a sort mat for comparing two characters with text evidence. Answer key included.
This whose point of view compare and contrast activity has 3rd-5th grade students sort 24 story cards as first or third person. A mat, recording sheet and practice page, with an answer key included.
Characters, conflict and the big message
Fifth graders go deep with story elements. They identify setting, characters, conflict, plot and resolution, and then they ask harder questions: how do characters change, and how does the setting shape the problem? The big one is theme, the lesson or message the author wants readers to take away. Students learn that theme is shown through what characters do and learn, not usually stated outright: character's choice + what happens = theme. They also compare and contrast two characters, settings or events using details from the text. The click moment is when a student says, "Oh, the story is really about forgiveness!"
Upper elementary readers are ready to think like authors. These moves get them there.
After a short story, think aloud: "What did the main character learn? What would the author want me to learn?" Write a theme statement as a full sentence, not one word. Then students try it with their own reading.
Why it works: showing first, practicing together, then letting kids try alone is the "gradual release" model teachers have relied on for decades (Pearson and Gallagher, 1983).
Try it withDetermining Theme ActivityActivitiesOpen it →Kids fill a graphic organizer with key events, the character's choices and the lesson learned. Seeing the evidence laid out makes the theme easier to name and defend.
Why it works: children learn more from words and pictures together than from words alone (Mayer, 2009).
Try it withDetermining Theme Graphic Organizers ActivityGraphic OrganizersOpen it →Students draw a character and surround it with traits, each backed by a quote or action from the text. Then they show how the character changed from beginning to end.
Why it works: going from real objects to pictures to symbols is a core recommendation of the U.S. Department of Education's elementary math guide.
Try it withCharacters Sketch ActivityActivitiesOpen it →Discussion-rich activities our 5th graders love.
ActivitiesRead two short stories and compare how each one shows a similar theme.
Open Comparing Themes of Two Stories Activity →
ActivitiesCompare two characters in a Venn diagram, then debate who changed the most.
Open Character Comparison Activity →
ActivitiesTeams race to find the setting, conflict and resolution in a short story.
Open Finding Story Elements Activity →Teacher favorites right now: Identifying Theme Activity, Determining Theme Activity and Smarter Balanced (CAASPP / SBAC) 5th Grade ELA Practice Test Workbook.
The main story elements are characters, setting, plot, conflict and resolution. Fifth graders also study theme, the message or lesson of the story.
Have students look at what the main character learns and how they change. Then ask them to write the lesson as a full sentence that could apply to anyone.
Main idea is what a text is mostly about, often used for nonfiction. Theme is the deeper message or life lesson in a story.
After reading or watching a movie, ask who, where, what the problem was and how it was solved. Then ask, "What lesson did the character learn?"
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