Too Many Tamales - A Guide for Educators

Too Many Tamales
A RIF GUIDE FOR EDUCATORS
Themes: Latino Culture, Holidays, Family, Honesty
Grade Level: K to 3rd grade
Book Brief: Maria and her cousins put their
stomachs to the test to find her
mom’s lost wedding ring.
LET’S THINK ABOUT
TIME TO READ!
BEFORE WE READ,
LET’S LOOK AT...
The Cover: What can the
students tell about the
story based on the cover
illustrations and the title? Who are the kids on the
front cover? Why are their eyes so big? What are
they looking at? What’s a tamale?
The Pictures: For younger children, take a quick
picture walk through the book. Have students make
predictions about the plot based just on the pictures.
What time of year does this story take place? How
can we tell?
WHILE WE READ
MONITORING
COMPREHENSION
◆ Why didn’t Maria listen to
her mom? Why didn’t
she tell her mom right away
she lost the wedding ring?
Author: Gary Soto
Illustrator: Ed Martinez
Content Connections:
Social Studies, Math
Prior Knowledge: Make sure all students know what
a tamale is. Do students have any special foods they
eat only at holidays or celebrations? What are their
favorites? Have they ever eaten
too much of those foods? How
do they feel afterwards?
Vocabulary: drifted, dusk, masa,
kneaded, tamales
Purpose for Reading:
As we read today, think
about what you would
have done if you were
Maria.
Our Purpose: Revisit the purpose: “What would you have done if you were Maria? Would you have put your
mom’s ring on? Would you have tried to eat all the tamales?”
Extending Our Thinking: Ask students to think about a time when they did something wrong or made a mistake
and tried to cover it up instead of asking for help. What happened? Did they get in trouble? Would it have been
better if they’d just been honest in the first place?
NOTE TO EDUCATORS
◆ Extension Activities for Educators also available.
◆ Vocabulary Scaffolding Sheet also available.
◆ What do you think made Maria remember the
ring?
◆ Why did Maria’s cousins agree to help her?
◆ Why does each child take just one bite of the
final tamale?
◆ Why does everyone laugh at the end of the story?

Too Many Tamales
RIF EXTENSION ACTIVITIES FOR EDUCATORS
MATH (K TO 2ND GRADE)
Using play dough, have students make
“tamales.” Use tamales for problem solving.
Create problems suitable for your grade level.
Possible examples include:
◆ If Lisa has 2 tamales and she eats 1, how many
does she have left?
◆ If Jamal makes 4 tamales and then makes
1 more, how many does he have?
◆ Fatima had 10 tamales. She now has 2. How
many tamales did she eat?
SOCIAL STUDIES PROJECT
(K TO 3RD GRADE)
How do people celebrate holidays around the
world? Have students choose a country to
research at home with parents or in class in small
groups. Have them create a poster showing
traditional dishes served at celebrations in that
country. Share with the class.
JOURNALING (1ST TO 3RD GRADE)
Have students respond to the following prompt
in their writing journals.
One day I ate too many/much ______________ ,
and you’ll never believe what happened next!
CREATIVE WRITING
(2ND TO 3RD GRADE)
Have students write their own story about the
way their family celebrates a holiday with a
special food. Students should
include concrete details about
their homes and neighborhoods
in their stories. Have
students use sensory details
to describe the food they
are writing about.
WORKING
WITH RECIPES
(2ND TO 3RD GRADE)
Find a tamale recipe online. Depending on your
class, you may need to simplify it. To emphasize
sequencing skills, give each student a copy of
the recipe and have them fill out the attached
Tamale Sequence Map. To emphasize
measurement, estimation and budgeting skills,
put students in small groups and have them fill
out the attached
Our Tamales
Sheet.

Tamale Sequence Map
DIRECTIONS
Complete this map with the directions for making tamales.
Include only one detail in each step, in order.
STEP 1
STEP 2
STEP 3
STEP 4
STEP 5
STEP 6
STEP 7
STEP 8
STEP 9
STEP 10
STEP 11
STEP 12
Name:

Our Tamales Sheet Name:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
INGREDIENT AMOUNT NEEDED ESTIMATED COST
PROCEDURE FOR MAKING TAMALES

Too Many Tamales
A RIF VOCABULARY SCAFFOLD
apron: something
you wear to keep
your clothes clean
when you cook
glittered:
sparkled, shone,
was bright
and shiny
snipping:
cutting
littered:
covered, were
all over
chattered:
talked
grown-up:
older, an adult
tag along: to
follow, go with
someone else
piped up: said,
spoke, talked
gently: softly,
being careful
batch: how much
food you cook at
one time, like a
batch of cookies
(usually about 12)

Too Many Tamales
A RIF GUIDE FOR PARENTS AND FAMILIES
Themes: Latino Culture, Holidays, Family, Honesty
Grade Level: K to 3rd grade
Book Brief: Maria and her cousins put their
stomachs to the test to find her
mom’s lost wedding ring.
TIME TO READ!
Before reading, make
predictions: Why are the
children on the cover
looking at the tamales
with wide eyes?
While reading, make
connections: What special foods does your family
usually eat on holidays?
RELATED ACTIVITIES
CORN HUSK PAINTING
Materials: dried corn husks, paint, paper
After eating corn on the cob, save the corn husks.
Let husks dry overnight. Dip the ends in paint and
use the husks like paintbrushes to create a beautiful
picture. Notice how the texture of the husks leaves
lines in your painting.
OUT AND ABOUT
Twenty-four is a lot to eat of anything, especially
tamales! At your next meal, help your child count
out 24 of something small to eat (noodles, peas,
French fries, etc.). Imagine eating that many of
something
big!
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
OTHER BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR
The Old Man and His Door (1998),
The Skirt (2008), The Cat’s Meow (1997).
Author:
Gary Soto
Illustrator:
Ed Martinez
After reading, ask questions:
◆ Why didn’t Maria tell her mom right away what
happened to the wedding ring? What would you
have done?
◆ Should her cousins have helped her eat all the
tamales?
◆ How do you think Maria’s mom got her ring back?
◆ How do you think Maria’s cousins felt that night?
SIMPLE TAMALE PIE
Ingredients: 1 lb. ground beef,
2 tbsp. chopped onion,
1 8oz. can tomato sauce,
1 can Mexican style
corn (drained), salt &
pepper, 1 box cornbread
mix (plus ingredients
on box)
Cook beef and onions in
a pan until brown. Drain
grease. Add tomato sauce,
corn and salt and pepper to
taste; mix. Pour in casserole dish. Mix cornbread
according to directions on box. Pour on top of beef
mixture. Bake at 350 o until cornbread is done.

Too Many Tamales
A RIF GUIDE FOR COMMUNITY COORDINATORS
Themes: Latino Culture, Holidays, Family, Honesty
Grade Level: K to 3rd grade
Book Brief: Maria and her cousins put their
stomachs to the test to find her
mom’s lost wedding ring.
RELATED ACTIVITIES
FIND THE RING (AGES 5-12)
TIME TO READ!
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Author:
Gary Soto
Illustrator:
Ed Martinez
Before reading: Tell the kids this is a story about a special family tradition but also
about the importance of following directions and telling the truth. Do the children
have any special foods they eat only on certain holidays? What are their favorites?
Materials: play dough (2 c. flour, 1 c. salt, 1 tbsp. oil,
1 c. water, 2 drops of food coloring), small plastic ring
Have some fun making no-cook play dough!
1. Mix together flour and salt. Gradually add oil, food
coloring and water to dry mix.
2. Mix and knead until blended. Kids can make
“tamales” from the play dough. Hide a small
plastic ring inside one play dough tamale.
3. For a game, place the tamales in a pile. Have kids
split into teams. Each child takes a turn running to
the tamale pile, grabbing a tamale and searching
it for the ring. The team that picks the winning
tamale wins the race.
Remake the tamales
and play again.
OTHER BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR
COMMUNITY
COOKBOOK
(AGES 5-12)
Materials: colored
pencils, paper, recipes
The Old Man and His Door (1998), The Skirt (2008), The Cat’s Meow (1997).
TECHNOLOGY LINK FOR KIDS
www.rif.org/kids
Have each child bring
in a recipe from
their favorite family
celebration. Have
them write or type
the recipe on a sheet
of white paper. Let
them illustrate the
recipe with a picture
of the food, their
family or a symbol
from the type of celebration the recipe represents.
Bind the recipes together to make a community
cookbook. If you can, make copies of the book to
send home.