"Chicken Soup with Rice" by Maurice Sendak - Activity, Snack, and Printable

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 Written by: Makinsey Ekman

The Book We Love

I had never heard of this book until my second child was born. My parents bought it for my oldest as a "congratulations on being a big sister" gift. From the moment we opened the book my daughter and I couldn't stop laughing. The book has a natural cadence that made her giggle with each ridiculous chicken soup filled situation. While this book doesn't fulfill any real educational purposes, we like it anyway. It is also a great book to have children who are learning to read practice, since it has a lot of repetition.

Get it here: Target, Thriftbooks, Amazon

The Activity We Did

"In January it's so nice while slipping on the sliding ice..."

"Chicken Soup with Rice" by Maurice Sendak

Ice Magic

You Will Need:

  • 4 cups distilled vinegar
  • 4 Tbl baking soda
  • Saucepot
  • Plastic plate
  • Wire whisk

How To Play:

First, pour the vinegar into a pot and then slowly add the baking soda (if you add too much at a time it will boil over) stirring constantly with your whisk. Once the baking soda is fully incorporated into the vinegar place the pot over medium-low heat. You want some bubbles to occur but not rapid boiling. Reduce the liquid down until you've only got 1/2 cup of concentrate. Pull the pot off of the heat and pour the mixture into a glass jar. You'll know its worked if crystals form in the bottom of your pot from the drippings.

Once those crystals have formed scrape them out of the pot and onto a plastic plate in a small mound. Once the glass jar is cool enough to handle place it in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes. You don't want the mixture to freeze, just get tepid. As soon as it is cool pull it out of the freezer and slowly pour it over the crystals, like a 1/2 a tsp at a time, and a stalagmite type structure will begin to form.

The Food We Ate

"Happy once, happy twice, happy chicken soup with rice."

"Chicken Soup with Rice" by Maurice Sendak

Creamy Chicken Soup with Rice

You Will Need:

  • 4 chicken breasts
  • 1 medium onion
  • 3 medium carrots
  • 2 cups brown rice
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 1/2 cups of corn
  • 1 Tbl salt
  • 6 cups of chicken broth
  • 2 Tbl cornstarch
  • 2 Tbl avocado oil
  • 1 cup heavy cream or (for a healthier option, evaporated milk)
  • 1 Tbl pepper
  • 1 1/2 tsp cayenne
  • 2 tsp thyme
  • 2 tsp rosemary

How To Make:

Cook rice following directions on box. (Personally, I like to cook it in chicken broth and 1 Tbl of butter just to give the rice more flavor).

Dice the onions and carrots, and mince the garlic. Next, cut the chicken into bite sized pieces trimming off any tendon or fat. Before searing the chicken in 1 Tbl oil, season with a little bit of salt and pepper. (I cook the chicken in the pot I use for the soup so I can use the fonde in the broth). Remove and set on a paper towel.

Add 1 Tbl of broth in the pot, and stir to loosen any fonde. In 1 Tbl oil sauté onions and carrots until the onions are translucent. Then put in the garlic and cook for one minute, or until it becomes fragrant. Add the remaining broth and seasonings, and bring to simmer. Simmer 20 minutes before putting the chicken back into the pot. Mix cornstarch with cream/milk to make slurry. When chicken is fully cooked and tender, whisk in cornstarch slurry and add the rice. If needed, add additional seasoning.

The Activity We Did

"I told you once. I told you twice. All seasons of the year are nice..."

"Chicken Soup with Rice" by Maurice Sendak

Unscramble the Months/Seasons

You Will Need:

What To Do:

Have your child pick whichever color of construction paper they want. Cut out the letters of the first word and have your child glue them in the correct order on the page. Once they finish with that word cut out the second, and so on until you've unscrambled all of the words.

If your child is younger you can write out the word on the construction papers and have them match the cut-out letters from the printable with the written words. If they are older you can just have them write the unscrambled word on the construction paper.

Other Activities:

Some other fun resources for the book, and other crafty ideas that we didn't do... yet.

  • Go ice skating
  • If there's snow outside make a snowman, or simply draw one
  • Go swimming
  • Plant flowers
  • Make cut out ghosts, ghouls, etc.

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