Arroz con Leche – Rice Pudding

The second title of Jorge Argueta's popular bilingual Cooking Poems series, celebrates the joys of preparing, eating and sharing food.

Book Genre:

Nonfiction, Poetry

Audience:

ages 7 and up / grades 2 and up

Written by

Jorge Argueta

Illustrated by

Fernando Vilela

Translated by

Elisa Amado

Book Description
The second title of Jorge Argueta’s popular bilingual Cooking Poems series, celebrates the joys of preparing, eating and sharing food.

Now available in paperback, Arroz con leche / Rice Pudding is the second title of Jorge Argueta’s popular bilingual Cooking Poems series, celebrating the joys of preparing, eating and sharing food.

From sprinkling the rice into the pot, to adding a waterfall of milk, cinnamon sticks, salt stars and sugar snow, Jorge Argueta’s recipe is not only easy to follow, it is a poetic experience. The lively illustrations by Fernando Vilela feature an enthusiastic young cook who finds no end of joy in making and then slurping up the rice pudding with his family.

As in all the titles in this series, Arroz con leche / Rice Pudding conveys the pleasure of making something delicious to eat for people you really love. A great book for families to enjoy together.
Pre-Reading Activities/ Key Ideas & Details
What’s Your Favorite Food?
Ask the children in your group what their favorite foods are to make and eat. Then read the story aloud.
During Reading Activities/ Text Forms & Genres
Find the Birds
Birds appear in each of the books in the cooking poem series. Have your group look for these beautiful feathered friends – encourage your group to find them all.
Post-Reading Activities/ Integrated Learning
Where Does Food Come From?
Choose one of the foods your group named before you started reading. Ask the children to identify all of the parts of that food (e.g., for a hamburger: bun, beef patty, tomato, lettuce, cheese). Next, ask your group to name (or guess) where these things come from. Do they grow in the ground like a potato, or in a tree like an apple? Do they come from an animal, like beef, or are they made from something that comes from an animal, like cheese?
Post-Reading Activities/ Integrated Learning
Perform a Poem
Arrange the children into small groups, and within each group assign each child the role of a food that is prepared in the poem, and one or more child to be the cook. For example, to make guacamole have children pretend to be avocados, limes and cilantro while one or more child acts out the cooping, squeezing and tearing to put all the ingredients together. Tell the children to be sure to act out each small step of the recipe. Even beans simmering in a pot is an important role to play — imagine the flames dancing beneath the pot, and the beans dancing together inside. Remember that food tastes better when you sing and dance.
Post-Reading Activities/ Developing & Creating Texts
What’s in a Recipe?
Make a list of all the ingredients that have definite measurements in one or more of the poems (e.g., for rice pudding you would include ‘two cups of rice’ but not ‘some cinnamon sticks’).

For a younger group:

Using measuring cups and spoons, have the children measure out these amounts (of blocks or beads, for example) to see how much of each ingredient goes into each recipe.

For an older group:

How much of each ingredient they would need in order to double the recipe? To halve it?
Post-Reading Activities/ Vocabulary Acquisition
Bilingual Poetry
Organize the children into small groups and ask each group to pick a word they like from the English text of the poem. They can work together to find (or guess) the same word in the Spanish text. Each child could then write the two words together on a sheet of paper and draw a picture of the word they have chosen to be displayed around the classroom. Take the class on a tour of these words.
Post-Reading Activities/ Critical Thinking in Literacy
Holiday Foods
Food is an important part of many holidays and celebrations. Have the children in your group name some of their favorite holidays and the foods they eat at each one. Ask them why they think these particular foods are tied to the celebration. Have your children form small groups and have each of them design an invitation to a holiday party and include drawings of foods that will be eaten at the party.
Post-Reading Activities/ Just for Fun!
Have a Party!
Jorge Argueta’s cooking poems are all about the fun of cooking and eating together. With your group of children, plan a special feast that might include some of the delicious foods found in these poems. You could make up your own holiday, based on something special to your group, to celebrate. Ask children to bring something for the group to share from home – encourage them to cook with their families if they can. You could even make a simple food that doesn’t involve adding heat (like guacamole) in the classroom.