Making tamales on special holidays is a tradition in many Mexican homes. Our 4’s & 5’s class listened to the book Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto. Young Maria is helping her mother prepare tamales on Christmas Eve. Maria can’t resist trying on her mother’s diamond ring without permission when she leaves the kitchen for a few moments. Later, after all the tamales are made, Maria believes that the ring is missing and that it fell into the masa mixture. Maria and her cousins eat 23 out of 24 tamales, desperately hoping to find the ring. Their stomachs are aching when they find out that the ring was not lost; Maria’s mother had it all along.

Lucia prepared play dough and pipe cleaner ingredients to teach the class how to make tamales. We all learned how to spread the masa flat on the corn husk, add the filling of cheese, peppers and meat – fold it up, cook and enjoy!