SANCOCHO SURPRISE
RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS & PARENTS
Serve up Sancocho with Your Kids!
The flyers below give you ready-made ways to cook up learning and FUN, at home or in the classroom!
VIDEO: Watch Ruddy Núñez illustrating this book!
Ruddy Núñez, illustrator of The Good Stranger’s Sancocho Surprise, talks about what the story means and how the Dominican campo inspired the style of the art. With subtitles in English y en Español!
VIDEO: Story Time with John!
Watch this full-length read-along with John, featuring all the book illustrations, songs, rhymes… and a couple of John’s funny faces.
VIDEO EN ESPAÑOL: ¡Hora de Cuentos con Juan!
Mire una lectura completa con John, con todas las ilustraciones del libro, canciones, rimas ... y un par de caras divertidas de Juan.
ACTIVITIES, GAMES… y dinámicas!
SONGS… Canciones!
ACTIVITIES TO DO
The Sancocho Circle Time Song & Activity
Mimics the game of Duck, Duck, Goose whereby each child takes a turn to walk around the circle, carrying his or her special contribution for the communal Stone Soup. In between singing verses, one child at a time will share aloud why they brought their particular ingredient (or why it’s special to them) before placing it into the central cooking pot in the middle of the circle. This is a great opportunity to embrace diversity and multiculturalism in a classroom! Ask students to speak with their families and find something representative of their cultures to share.
Why not bring in maracas, tambourine, guitar, triangle and Dominican musical instruments for children that are not as inclined to sing along but would still like a role? OR the song can be used as more of a circle dance with partners if sitting seems too hard. When it’s a child’s turn to bring their object for the soup, they can dance and move to a designated area to retrieve their object.
Feeling Artistic?
Collaborative Art projects involve everyone and develop listening skills, cooperative work and collaboration to achieve the final result.
Get clay or model magic, and invite each child to be responsible for molding one ingredient that will be placed onto a larger clay pot to hold everyone’s contributions. Alternatively, they can each make their own individual stone soups on a small mat at their desk.
A similar thing can be done with construction paper-perhaps the teacher uses butcher or kraft paper to create a large circle representing the soup pot, and individual ingredients will be crafted by each child!
You can also paint: let each child bring in a special stone or rock that they can paint to resemble a vegetable, meat or grain found in the soup!
Community Activity followed by Questions for Reflection, Discussion and Writing
Some potential questions for reflection include:
Why do we fear the stranger?
What do we have in common with others?
Why are everyone’s gifts needed?
Is one gift more important than another?
Do we all have the same basic, human needs?
Was there a time in your life when you feared the “other?”
What can we do in our neighborhoods and communities to include others?
Teacher brings in something like a tapestry to highlight how beautiful things can be when they are woven together, as opposed to individual threads alone. Then the teacher reads aloud a written compliment for each student (that has been prepared in advance) and while the compliment is being read, the student receives one object that they will place into a central mandala on the floor. This activity highlights how everyone has a gift, and that all our gifts are different, but needed all the same.
Yoga & Movement
After reading the story aloud, invite children to stand up and help you to tell key parts of the story again using yoga poses! Poses can include mountain pose, downward facing dog, flower pose, flying bird pose, tree pose, wide-legged seat and child’s pose.
SONGS TO SING
El Colibrí
El colibrí canta y trae el mensaje de paz
El colibrí vuela y comparte su mensaje de esperanza para la comunidad
El colibrí canta y trae el mensaje de amor y paz
Que bueno es vivir unidos, en comunidad y bien comprometidos
Rico Sancocho
¡Rico Sancocho!
¡Rico Sancocho!
¡Rico Sancocho!
Comida para todos compartir
Comparto lo mio,
Compartes lo tuyo,
Comemos juntos,
Comida para todos compartir!
¡Rico Sancocho! (refran)
Cantamos juntos,
Bailamos juntos,
Comemos juntos,
!Comida para todos compartir!
¡Rico Sancocho! (refran)
Somos familia
Y comunidad
Estamos juntos
¡Comida para todos compartir!
(¿Que más? Invénta tu verso!)
The Sancocho Song
Sancocho, Sancocho, Sancocho to Eat.
Everyone shares in this special treat.
We each add our part and we stir it up well.
Everyone has a story to tell!
Sancocho, Sancocho, Sancocho surprise
Appearing before your very eyes.
Every person has something to give.
Sharing our gifts is the best way to live!
Now every piece matters in making the stew.
You give to me as I give to you
Remember this lesson, remember it well:
Everyone has a story to tell!