Dad's Pasta

Dad’s Pasta is a realistic and humorous fiction story about a girl recounting when her and her brother spent the weekend at their dad’s. They were supposed to go fishing, but the rain would not stop. Dad said he would cook the best pasta in the world to make up for it, but when he was cooking up a storm in the kitchen…he mixed up one of the ingredients! The story is narrated from the girl’s perspective with dialogue between characters and speech bubbles.

Dad’s Pasta is a simple recount story. Critical thinking questions are provided to guide the reader. Illustrations match the text. A visual information guide is provided for teachers to draw students’ attention to the text highlighters, illustrations, speech bubbles, font, layout, and design. There is an infographic at the end of the book outlining the parts of a recount including the who, where, when, sequence of events, and conclusion. An activity on drawing their own visual map of a recount is provided for teachers to extend students’ learning.

Readers develop vocabulary such as nouns (apron), verbs (chase), and singular/plural (marble/marbles). Opportunities arise to discuss apostrophes to show possession (brother’s jacket) and parentheses. Focus on long and short vowel o and discuss suffix er (loudly) and base words (worries).

This title is from the Sails Literacy series. Hook readers and ignite their curiosity - over 850 levelled texts with bright, colourful, sophisticated designs.