Scientific mining is based on breaking regularity of roof above underground working face in coal mine. In order to explore the primary breaking pattern of main roof above the first working face, on account of theory of thin elastic plate, development of the breaking in each region of main roof is analyzed and the breaking sequence of each region is explored in virtue of main bending moment taken as the breaking parameter. The results indicate that the first broken point of main roof is midpoint of the long side. The breaking, which occurs on the top surface of main roof, is caused by the second main bending moment. The fracture in long side region starts from midpoint of the long side and develops along the length direction of the working face. The fracture in middle region starts from the center of main roof and develops along the length direction of the working face. The fracture in short side region starts from midpoint of the short side and develops along advance direction of the working face. There always is an extreme value order of control moment in each region, Mc > Mz > Md, when a single parameter is within a reasonable range. Due to this, the breaking sequence is the long side region, the middle region and the short side region although they end up with the same breaking pattern O-X. Mc, Mz and Md depend on the advance distance of working face and increase linearly with transverse loading. Besides, the short side of main roof becomes stable with the increase of the length of working face. Revealing the primary breaking pattern of main roof above the first working face contributes to learning breaking behavior of main roof and providing theoretical support for design of the working face and roof management.