Bring poetry to life in your classroom with this Year 3 reading comprehension unit based on Supper Menu by children’s author Sue Hardy-Dawson.
This humorous and revolting restaurant-themed poem will capture children’s imaginations and provide a rich text for developing reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
You can teach this unit on its own or use it as part of our Real Comprehension programme – a whole-school approach to reading built around high-quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts for Years 1 to 6. This unit sits within the Year 3 theme First Impressions.
Flexible classroom use
The text is provided in several formats to support flexible classroom use. You’ll get plain and illustrated PDFs, as well as PowerPoint versions with and without highlighted vocabulary. An annotated teacher version includes close reading notes and flags opportunities for clarification, drama, discussion or visualisation.
The unit includes two fully resourced lessons focused on the words dustbins and season. Each vocabulary PowerPoint breaks down the word’s meaning and usage, inviting children to explore definitions, identify word classes and use the word in their own sentences.
The lesson on dustbins also uses compound word cards, while the season activity helps pupils distinguish between noun and verb forms.
Layered reading approaches – such as model, echo, pair and choral reading – support pupils in building fluency and confidence. Follow-up comprehension tasks help children retrieve information, explore tone, make inferences and respond to the poem creatively.
This Year 3 reading comprehension resource pack includes:
- Supper Menu by Sue Hardy-Dawson (PDF: plain, illustrated, annotated)
- PowerPoint versions of the text (with and without highlights)
- Annotated teacher text with close reading guidance
- Vocabulary Focus PowerPoints for dustbins and season
- Worksheets
- Big Questions PowerPoints
- Full teaching notes