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ELA is so much fun to teach. Reading short stories, fables, and novels with your class is such an amazing experience. Your students have likely experienced a few years of learning about summarizing, main idea and inferencing. But identifying the theme might be something fairly new for them in fourth grade. Here are 5 tips for teaching theme in 4th grade that will help your students master this important concept.
Theme is the moral, lesson, or message of the story. It is the BIG IDEA. Note that this should be differentiated from the main idea that students have already learned about. When first introducing the concept of theme it’s important to create an anchor chart or reference tool for students. These Theme in Literature Posters include everything you need. Print these posters and use them on a bulletin board, on chart paper, or copy in a smaller size so students can put them into their notebook. They are perfect for referencing the concept of theme all year long.
Here’s a great way to guide students to finding the theme: while reading have your students ask themselves what the author is trying to portray repeatedly throughout the story. Have them pay attention to the characters actions and words to help them find out.
Themes help the reader to connect the story to real life. Students are able to relate to characters and their struggles through the use of theme. Some common themes used throughout literature are:
See how this is really a BIG IDEA! It’s an over-arching broad topic as opposed to something that is story specific. Sometimes theme can be a hard skill for younger students to grasp because it is so abstract. With the use of different strategies, your students will have it down in to time at all. Here are 5 tips for teaching theme in 4th grade.
Fables are a great place to start when teaching theme. Why? Well, fables usually have a very clear lesson or moral. This generally lines up with the theme and makes it easier for students to learn and understand what theme it. They make it easier for students to understand exactly what theme is and be able to identify them in a story because they are shorter in nature. And . . . since they aren’t as overwhelming as longer stories they make great examples for mini-lessons and guided practice.
These fable based theme reading passages will provide your students with focused theme practice. They are a great addition to those first lessons on theme when students are just learning this concept. They are also a great place to go when you have students struggling with the concept of theme too!
Graphic organizers are a great tool in the classroom. They are generally structured in a way that they help to guide student thinking about a specific skill or concept. Graphic organizers can be used when teaching theme too! In this Theme Graphic Organizer students don’t just stop with identifying the theme, but they are challenged to find evidence from the text to support it. This is a great way for them to check their theme choice and make sure it is supported by the story.
Graphic organizers can be completed together as a class or individually by each student. They can be a stand alone worksheet activity or added to a students reading journal or interactive notebook. This graphic organizer also makes a great theme focused reading response activity for independent reading time.
Mini-books are a fun spin on graphic organizers. They provide the same theme content but in a different form. Sometimes it is as simple as changing up the format of an activity to really engage students attention. In this theme mini-book students will identify what the theme is, provide text based evidence, and even add an illustration.
The foldable book is super easy to make with no cutting or stapling required. It’s definitely something your students will be able to complete independently! It’s a great addition to a class novel study or with independent reading.
Foldables are great to use in interactive notebooks or reading journals. They are another hands on activity that has a high engagement rate. We can use foldable to teach and practice theme. By incorporating foldables into a reading notebook, students have a great reference tool that they can use in the future too!
A great thing about teaching theme in 4th grade is that it’s not the activity that needs to change, but rather the story or book. Students can repeat the same foldable for different books or stories in order to gain a deeper understanding of theme and how it changes.
Once you feel like your students have a pretty good grasp on what theme is, you can ramp up the thinking skills. Have students apply what they know about theme into their own writing! After digging into a variety of stories and hunting for text evidence, your students will love trying to weave a theme into their own story.
This Guided Theme Writing Activity will help them plan out their story and their theme. It’s no easy task to weave a theme into a story, but your students will love the challenge. After writing, share the stories and let class take a guess as to the theme the student author was trying to include.
All of these fun activities for theme can be found in my Teaching Theme packet. All five of these activities are included and ready to use. Not only can they be used with your initial lessons on theme, but the activities can be used again and again throughout the year as students practice identifying the theme.
If you like these ideas for teaching theme in 4th grade, then you will also love these reading bundles filled with similar activities for other reading concepts like author’s purpose and figurative language. Grab these reading bundles and be prepared for all your reading instruction needs this year!
Pin this to your favorite ELA Pinterest board so you can come back the next time you need a fresh, new activity for teaching theme to your fourth grade students.
Hi, I’m Shelly! Thank you for being here. I love helping third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers with fun and engaging activities that require no to little prep! Let me help you by taking some of the stress and work off your plate.
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