1. Pair up with a partner and take turns wearing a blindfold for half an hour. Write about your experience, both as the "blind" person and as friend and guide to your partner. Discuss some of the things you found difficult without sight and what it was like to be the sighted partner.

Students can discuss how this experience changed their notions about people with disabilities.

2. Ask a parent or grandparent to prepare a family recipe with you. Make a recipe card for the dish, which lists the ingredients and how you and your family member prepared it together. Include a picture of the food, too.

This activity could help launch expository writing. Students could combine their recipes, stories, and photographs to create a class recipe book.

3. Illustrate the pasta party that Granny Torrelli imagines in heaven and the pasta party that will take place after the book ends, with Rosie and Bailey and the new neighbors.

See pp. 139-141 to help visualize the pasta party at the end of the book.