“This slim sweet story will resonate particularly with children missing a previous home.”-Kirkus Review
Velasquez’s light-infused illustrations capture the quiet dignity of Emaye’s grief and Eva’s tentative acceptance and perfectly complement the tender tone of the text…This book can be read as one of a growing number of immigration stories.”–Booklist
“Beautifully illustrated oil paintings bring the words to life…This would be a good resource to use while doing cultural studies, especially with younger students.“-Library Media Connection
“Provides an opportunity for addressing themes of poverty and resource inequity with a very young audience. The perspective is spot on and the presentation of Alemitu’s culture shock is realistically detailed. Velasquez’s lush full-bleed oil compositions offer photorealistic portraits of the story’s characters…raises important talking points for young listeners as well as thoughtful reminders to appreciate easy access to food and water.“-BCCB
Christine Ieronimo is an inspirational lady that I am so honoured to call a friend. Her Book ‘A Thirst for Home’ is our feature mentor text this week, leading writers to a place where they need to think about living with little access to clean water.
The story is based on Christine’s life journey, adopting her youngest daughter, and her daughter’s adaptation to a new life in the USA. I have shared this text every year in my classroom and watched my students write from the heart. Christine has also visited my classroom speaking to students, answering questions, and sharing her passion to write.
– Bronwyn Joyce ‘The Global Write’ Creator
Plant The Seed - Unpack Your Thinking
The visual thinking routine we are learning about this week is Compass Points.
While visiting Ethiopia Christine wanted to experience for herself the toll walking for water had on the children and women. She completed a walk for water. Today we are going to watch her journey and reflect on the things that excited us as we watched, the things that worried us, the things we wanted to investigate further to understand, and finally we can share our opinions and thoughts about people having to walk for water.
Think about this:
Here are the Compass Points:
E = Excited What excites you about this idea of walking for water? What’s the upside?
W = Worrisome What do you find worrisome about this idea of walking for water? What’s the downside?
N = Need to Know What else do you need to know or find out? What additional information would help you to evaluate things?
S = Stance or Suggestion for Moving Forward What is your current stance or opinion on this idea of people walking for water? How might you move forward in your evaluation of this idea?
Let’s watch the video of Christine’s experience of walking to fetch water.
Here are my compass points and thinking about walking for water – Bronwyn Joyce ‘The Global Write’ Creator
IMPORTANT: Teachers don’t forget to take a photo of your student’s thinking and post them to ‘The Global Write’ Wakelet.
Let's Write
Before you can write you must listen to my students in Australia read to you the inspirational story written by Christine Ieronimo – A Thirst for Home.
This week’s prompts are from Christine’s resources section on her website. You can find them here http://www.christineieronimo.com/
Prompt 1
Imagine you were to look down into a big sparkling puddle, describe what you would see?
Children can illustrate what they see in their puddle.
Prompt 2
In the morning, the rain has stopped. Outside is the biggest, most beautiful puddle shimmering in the sun. When I look down, I am amazed at what I see….
Use this as your story starter and write a descriptive paragraph telling what you see.
Publish Your Writing Here
Talk To Our ARTIST Olivia
Can you explain the meaning behind Olivia’s image this week? She has taken her inspiration from UN Sustainable Goal 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation. She would love to hear your thoughts about what her image signifies. Send here a message on her Wakelet and I am sure she will leave you a reply.
Teacher Resources
For more information on the COMPASS POINT Visual Thinking Routine, you can go to https://pz.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Compass%20Points_0.pdf
The UN Sustainable Goal and Good Life Goal we are supporting this week are:
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