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Hi. Today we're gonna learn how to find the main idea of a short story. Many times we get confused with a summary of a story. So when we're looking for the main idea, we're looking for what the story is about, or who the story is about. So let's, for example, read a story about John.

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And John has lost his toy. He has no idea where it is. He's looking through the whole house, and finally he has an idea, I'm gonna find my friends. So he goes and visits each one of them in their homes and he says, Hi, I've lost my toy. Would you please come help me? So the fun part of the story is he's asking several animals to come help him. So they get in the house and then they look everywhere and somebody finds it under a chair, and that's how they solve John's problem.

Well, the main idea would be John, who's the character, lost his toy. He didn't know where to find it, but after getting the help of his friends, they found it in a very surprising place. So that would be the main idea. So let's read a story together and we'll see the difference between finding out the main idea and finding out a short summary. So now remember, a short summary is usually about four or five sentences where a main idea is about two. Okay, let's get started.