Everybody Cooks Rice / Everybody Bakes Bread

Everybody Cooks Rice by Norah Dooley, is the story of a little girl who knocks on all of her neighbors doors in an attempt to find her little brother and bring him home for dinner. Her neighbors are all originally from various countries and what the little girl discovers is that they are all cooking rice for dinner. This is certainly not the most captivating story I've ever read but it makes a nice point and includes lots of authentic recipes and that's why I'm going to use it as the focus of my next missions lesson.

Seven countries are represented in this book, in addition to the United States. These include; Barbados, Puerto Rico, Vietnam, India, China, Haiti, and Italy. I'll be letting the children in church choose a couple of the following printables to work on after class.

Barbados Flag and Map Color Page

Flag of Puerto Rico Mini Book

Vietnam Shutterfold Map

India Shutterfold Map

China Shutterfold Map

Haiti Flag and Map Color Page

Italy Shutterfold Map

During class I will read the book and we'll locate all the countries on the world map. Then we will pray for the countries and the world as a whole. We'll be praying in the following ways,

• that Christians everywhere will be thankful to God for the way he supplies us with the things that we need
• for our friends and neighbors all over the world to be hungry not just for rice and bread but also for the bread of life
• and that where people are hungry for Jesus there will be believers ready and willing to share the gospel with them

Because I teach in two church services I'll also be using Everybody Bakes Bread, another of the books in this series. I believe there are a total of four and they are all written by the same author. The story in this book is very similar to the story in Everybody Cooks Rice expect in this one everyone is making bread.

I'll teach from this book in the same way I teach from the other. Three new countries are introduced in this book. They are Lebanon, El Salvadore and Israel.

Lebanon Shutterfold Map

El Salvadore Flag and Map

Israel Shutterfold Map

I know I can get these books at my local library so hopefully you can too, and if you're looking for something more in depth there are a ton of lesson plans and unit studies on these books. Just do what I do and google it!