Asheville City Schools 1st-graders learn beauty of Mexican heritage with cooking lesson

ASHEVILLE - First-grade students at Isaac Dickson Elementary School recently got a taste of Mexico with a hands-on lesson in making a sweet pastry, as well as the life of a Mexican American child who grew up with his family of migrant farmworkers by reading the author's picture book.

The lesson on Sept. 21 kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month — a national celebration from Sept. 15- Oct. 15 established by Congress to honor the culture and contributions of Hispanic Americans — by reading "Tomás and the Library Lady," a children's picture book written by Mexican American writer Pat Mora and illustrated by Raúl Colón. The book, based on a true story about Tomás Rivera, the son of a migrant farm worker during the 1940s in the Midwest, was read in first-grade classrooms across Asheville City Schools.

In the story, Tomás falls in love with reading books and thanks to the "library lady," he and his family cook her pan dulce.

Scott Fisher, who teaches experiential learning at Isaac Dickson, asked the class, "What language is this in?" pointing to the board that had the words "pan dulce" across it.

The first-grade class responded, "Spanish!"

Fisher went on to explain to the class that in Spanish, "pan" means bread and "dulce" means sweet.

"Sweet bread," he said. "That's what we are making today."

Fisher gave his class instructions and let each student pick at what station they wanted to begin.

The stations he listed were: wet ingredients, dry ingredients or putting the extra crumble on top of the bread. Only one student picked the dry ingredients table.

Aiden, a first grader at Isaac Dickson, said his favorite part about the lesson was learning about the bread, while other students loved being able to mix all the ingredients together and see the final product.

A first-grade teacher at Isaac Dickson, Ann Fisher, said this lesson is important because it allows them to honor their Hispanic students.

Ann Fisher explained that the book is a part of their English language arts curriculum.

The story, based on the life of Mexican educator and author Tomás Rivera, is about young Rivera, who travels back and forth between Texas and Iowa because his parents were migrant farmworkers. In Iowa, he gets to go to his first library, and there he finds a "library lady," who learns his interests and passions and provides Rivera books based on them. Because of this, he is able to develop a love of reading, which he takes into his life and career later on.

Ann Fisher said that when her class was reading the book, she had a fluent Spanish speaker who taught her first-grade peers how to pronounce the word "pan dulce," ("pon," as in "pond," and "dool-say.")

"I think that it's just a wonderful way to just honor each of our students so they can see themselves in what they're learning," Ann Fisher said.

Scott Fisher told the Citizen Times that exposing children to different cultures is beneficial in their education, and an even better way is doing it through food.

"They get to learn about the Spanish language, they learn a little bit about the culture, and they get to take a bun home to share with their family," he said.

On Oct. 18 Lucy S Herring Elementary School is inviting families to their Hispanic Heritage Program starting at 8:15 a.m.

More: Buncombe County School receives National Blue Ribbon award for academic performance

McKenna Leavens is the education reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at mleavens@citizentimes.com or follow her on Twitter @LeavensMcKenna. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Hispanic Heritage Month celebrated in Asheville City Schools