Writing

• Have students create acrostic poems about their favorite foods. Acrostic poems use each letter of a word to start a word or line about that word. Have them refer to the Building Background discussion to help them come up with ideas.
• Students can try using only one word for each letter of the food. Alternatively, they could try writing a phrase that begins with each letter:

Mouth watering
Easy to eat
Luscious taste
Out of the garden
Nice in hot weather    

• Students can draw a picture of their favorite food to illustrate the poems. 

Social Studies Connection

• Have students research the national origins of their favorite foods. Students can research just the dish they enjoy, or they can get as specific as the origins of the ingredients (for instance, tomatoes, so prevalent in Italian dishes, are native to the New World and only entered European cooking after Columbus)
• Using a world map, students can create diagrams showing themselves enjoying their favorite food in their own country with arrows pointing from the various origins of that food.

Assessment

• Review students' map worksheets to assess how well they can remember, look up, and organize information by location. Note whether they are able to connect the maps in the text with a new map.
• Review students' comma worksheets to check if they understand how to use commas in lists and not to use commas in lists joined by conjunctions.
• Monitor the discussion of compound words to assess how well students understand the different forms. Ensure that students do not mistake separate words for non-hyphenated, separate compound words.