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Hi Emily-
This book is pretty adorable. I can see a lot of possibilities for students collecting data in their community such as how many teachers/staff/peers like spicy vs mild tacos then graphing the data. They can be guided to make inferences and further questions.
For a STEM challenge I was inspired by the last page of the book where the dragons are rebuilding a house.
You could start with students making a connection by having students observe the shape(s) that makes their home. They bring back their information to class and observe patterns. If you want to take it one step further it could expand into the difference between dimensional shapes. Encourage students to make connections to each other through the shapes they live in. OR shorten this by having students observe pictures of different houses that are common in their community. What shapes are most used? What shapes aren't used? Why? Why do engineers choose these shapes when they are building/designing homes. To scaffold- have a cut out of a square, triangle, rectangle, circle and so on to hold on the pictures.
Then, challenge students to rebuild a home after a spicy taco party! They would build a house frame with simple and safe materials such as rounded tooth picks, pasta noodles and gummies, etc.. The challenge is to build a house that holds as many taco shells as possible.
You could tie in geometry (math!) with some pre-challenge exploration of the strength of shapes such as triangle and squares.
If you go ahead with the idea, let me know how it turns out or if you used bits of the idea too.
Good luck and have fun!
Diana Potts
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