Turn up the heat in your literacy block with our fiery and fun Dragons Hate Spicy Salsa: Cause & Effect Worksheets! Designed to accompany a class reading of Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin, this engaging activity supports students in developing a deep understanding of cause and effect relationships in texts.

By exploring the hilarious consequences of dragons accidentally eating spicy ingredients, students will build foundational comprehension skills and sharpen their ability to link events and outcomes. With space for both written and visual responses, this resource supports a range of learners while keeping things light-hearted and creative.

Perfect for small group work, guided reading, literacy centres or independent response activities, this worksheet pack combines structured learning with imaginative fun. Students will love coming up with exaggerated dragon reactions, and you’ll love seeing them make meaningful connections in their reading.

Key Learning Outcomes:

• ✅ Understand the concept of cause and effect in narrative texts
• ✅ Identify and explain how one event can lead to a specific outcome
• ✅ Improve comprehension by connecting story events logically
• ✅ Practise using evidence from a text to support understanding
• ✅ Engage in creative expression through drawing and storytelling

What’s Included:

• Three differentiated cause and effect worksheets
• Spicy ingredient prompts including hot sauce, spicy salsa and chilli peppers
• Spaces for both written explanations and visual reactions
• Clear student-friendly instructions

Materials Needed:

• Printed worksheets (on paper or card for durability)
• Pencils and coloured markers
• Optional: anchor chart paper for whole-class examples

How to Use:

1. Introduce or revise the concept of cause and effect with a short discussion or class anchor chart.
2. Read Dragons Love Tacos together and highlight spicy food events in the story.
3. Guide students through the spicy ingredient prompts and help them brainstorm possible dragon reactions.
4. Students write a cause and effect sentence and illustrate the outcome in the drawing section.
5. Use as a guided activity, then move to independent or rotation-based completion.

Ideas for Classroom Use:

• 💡 Use during a comprehension lesson after reading Dragons Love Tacos
• 💡 Set up as a literacy centre with drawing supplies for creative responses
• 💡 Have students partner-share their worksheets and explain their reasoning
• 💡 Turn it into a bulletin board display titled “Spicy Situations!”
• 💡 Link to science by discussing why spicy foods make us feel hot

Top Teacher Tips:

• 💛 Model one worksheet as a class before moving to independent work
• 💛 Encourage wild and silly reactions - this is where imagination shines!
• 💛 Support reluctant writers with sentence starters or visual prompts
• 💛 Use the worksheets as discussion starters for group comprehension talks

Dragons Hate Spicy Salsa: Cause & Effect Worksheets are a perfect way to bring laughter and literacy together, helping students grasp a key comprehension skill while having a blast with dragon drama.

Available in our basic fun font and all Australian state fonts.