Pizza Reading Comprehension Passage - Cored Ed Encyclopedia

This pizza reading comprehension contains the following:

Visualize on the Cover (Teacher Read Aloud Script)

Start your lesson by taking a few moments to visualize the topic and share thoughts or feelings about it.

Pre-Reading Trivia

Students will write down one thing they already know about the subject and then read five more facts and discuss. These facts are fun, and the students will enjoy learning about the subject before reading more.

Reading Passage

The text is a high-interest reading passage with set paragraphs, roughly three to four paragraphs long. It contains a variety of themes about the topic, anywhere from history to technology. The passage is between 250 and 350 words in length.

Mixed Questions

The first question page contains four multiple-choice questions, each with a choice of four answers, and three written response questions that require a sentence or two from the student.

Vocabulary Questions

Practice seven key words from the text in this section across two activities. First section is scrambled words where students will unscramble three words given a clue for each. The second section is a word to meaning matching activity.

Creative Writing

In this question, the student will be required to write a five to eight sentence paragraph on a question related to the topic.

Extension Activities

This page is optional for fast finishers or to take home. There are several activities, each one requiring a different skill. Do some, do none, do all, completely optional - but you will feel reassured knowing every possibility is planned for. Includes summary writting question.

Answer Key

There are answers for the multiple-choice questions, written response questions have sample answers, vocabulary answers and if there is a summary question then a sample summary will be provided as well.

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Lesson Snapshot

• Title: Pizza

• Genre: Nonfiction (informational text)

• Subject: Social Studies (culture/history of food) + Reading Informational Text

• Primary Topic: How pizza began in Naples and spread

• Estimated Guided Reading Level (A–Z): Q

What This Lesson Teaches Best

• How pizza grew from simple flatbreads into popular street food in Naples, Italy, including a “Marinara” style known by the 1700s.

• How tomatoes arriving from the Americas changed pizza toppings, leading to styles that look familiar today.

• Key details of a classic Margherita-style pizza and a text-defined term: the raised crust edge called the cornicione.

• How a famous 1889 story about Queen Margherita is presented as a legend with details that are debated by historians.

• How foods change as people move: pizza “traveled,” becoming thick and cheesy in some places and thin, crisp, or foldable in others—while Naples guards its craft, recognized by UNESCO.

Learning Goals

• Students will explain how the passage describes pizza starting from flatbreads and becoming special in Naples.

• Students will describe how tomatoes changed pizza in Naples using details from the text.

• Students will identify the toppings listed for a classic Margherita-style pizza in the passage.

• Students will explain what the passage says is debated about the Queen Margherita story.

• Students will describe how the passage says pizza changed as it traveled to new countries.

Key Vocabulary From the Text

• Neapolitan — from Naples; connected to pizza made there.

• cornicione — the raised edge of the crust.

• Marinara — a simple pizza style known in Naples long ago.

• historians — people who study and write about the past.

• UNESCO — a group that recognizes important cultural traditions.

Cored Ed Encyclopedia Overview

The Cored Ed Encyclopedia is a weekly series of lessons that you can pick up and use right away. These short readings fit into whatever time you have available. Each one includes a warm-up, a reading, and a set of questions, but it’s flexible — you can do just the reading, the full lesson, or skip the writing section if you need to. Each lesson focuses on a single topic so students don’t get lost. The writing is clear but never childish, making it perfect for grades two through five. Topics range from animals and science to history, inventions, and everyday things. No matter the level of the student, everyone should take away at least one new idea or fact from each lesson. The materials are easy to print, easy to explain, and require no setup. They work well for whole-class teaching, partner work, or independent study.