A Thanksgiving Story By Eve Bunting. Illustrated by Beth

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How Many Days to America?
A Thanksgiving Story
By Eve Bunting. Illustrated by Beth Peck
A bibliotherapy to explore how Thanksgiving
Celebration could go beyond religion.
Bibliotherapy SPED 620 Diana Ramírez
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Objectives

• To explore how the Thanksgiving celebration can
  be applicable to our modern world.

• To discuss how a religious celebration such as
  Thanksgiving can go beyond religion.

• To understand the displacement crisis in
  Colombia.

• To explore part of the solution to the
  displacement crisis from the students point of
  view.

• To read, analyze and write a narrative text.

• To promote social awareness in our students so
  that they can get to know this part of our social
  and cultural reality as they assume a commitment
  towards it.

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Grade Level Classroom Setting

• This lesson is designed for grades 5 through 7.
  This lesson is inserted in an Integrated Thematic
  Unit.
• This particular lesson could take three class
  periods.
• The time line for the entire Integrated Unit
  could take 15 to 18 class periods.

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Synopsis
How Many Days to America? is the story of
refugees from a Caribbean island, who embark on a
dangerous boat trip to America where they have a
special reason to celebrate Thanksgiving.
This is a beautiful picture book where the
reader is invited to explore political and
geographical information to confront his/her
predictions.
In our home country thousands of people live the
same story everyday. This lesson is an invitation
to the reader to put on displaced peoples shoes.
The reader can think about ways to give them a
reason to be thankful for.
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Cover
Back Cover
After the soldiers go, Father tells the family,
We must leave right now. Why? the boy asks.
Because we do not think the way they think, my
son. Hurry!
A Thanksgiving story that knows no season,
religion or race, but is for everyone all year
'round
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Themes explored in the book

• Globalization Regional
• Ethnicity
• Religion
• Displacement Crisis
• Social and Cultural crisis of a country.

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Prerequisite Activity
During the month of November, students have
developed a web quest to find information on the
history of Thanksgiving Celebration. By the time
this lesson is presented, students know very well
the religious implications this celebration has.
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Introductory Activities
1. Students will be asked to discuss in their
groups their prior knowledge on the Thanksgiving
celebration.
2. They will also discuss different reasons a
person or a whole population in our modern world
will have for them to move from one place to
another.
3. Students will discuss in their groups for
approximately 10 minutes, they will assign a
reporter and teacher will write on a paper
important conclusions.
4. Finally, teacher will announce that such
discussion is connected to the new story they
will read. Students will share their predictions
on how the discussion is connected to the theme
of the story.  
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Discussion Questions
PRE-READING DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• By looking at the title and cover picture, why
  can you say this Thanksgiving story is not a
  traditional story on this celebration?
• Reading the back cover, why do you think this
  people are emigrating?
• Where do you think they are from? Why can you
  tell that?
• What do you think this story is about after this
  first approach to the story?

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Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS DURING THE READING
5. Why do you think the kids were hid when the
soldiers came? 6. Why are the reasons this family
have to leave their village? Are these reasons
expressed in the book? 7. Do you think the family
have planned this trip ahead? Why? 8. Lets
describe their journey to America. According to
our predictions, which could be those places
where they stopped before arriving to America? 9.
Why was it meaningful for this family to
celebrate Thanksgiving day?
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Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AFTER THE READING
10. Do we celebrate thanksgiving in our
country? 11. Is there a reason why people with
different religious affiliations should not
celebrate this day? 12. Lets think of possible
similar situations people here in Colombia can
experience?
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Follow-up Activities
STUDENTS WILL

• Use a map of North and South America (including
  the Caribbean islands) to trace the possible
  journey the family in the story might have had to
  arrive to America.
• Research on the Caribbean islands social
  problems to establish the possible origin of this
  family. They will have to plan some presentations
  with their findings.
• Complete a flow map to establish the
  sequence of events of this story.

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Follow-up Activities
STUDENTS WILL
4. Retell the story orally using the flow map. 5.
Follow one character (each group will be assigned
a different character) to explore his/her
feelings during the story. They will complete a
special chart teacher will design for such
purpose. 6. Carry out a web quest, pre-designed
by the teacher, on displaced people in Colombia.
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Follow-up Activities
STUDENTS WILL
7. Complete a questionnaire as a result of their
web quest, informing important aspects of
displacement in Colombia such as causes, social
effects, humanitarian actions, organizations
offering support to displaced people.
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Final Activity
To wrap this project and as a way to compile all
the information gathered, students will write a
story of a displaced family in our region (Valle
del Cauca) moving to our city (Cali). They will
follow a prewriting plan in which elements of our
bibliotherapy are included such as Cause of
leaving. Spatial Movements. (from one village to
another) Sequence of events. Character roles.
Time period. (Chronological) Social factors
implied.
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Final Activity
In their story, they will also include a way
Caleños (people from Cali) can give them a reason
for them to be thankful for. For this purpose the
class will brainstorm how the Caleño government
and community can help to provide displaced
people with a solution, once they arrive to the
city.
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A message!!!
Colombia
A beautiful country to care about!
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Statistics Number of displaced people per
100.000 inhabitants in every region (departamento)
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Everyday in our country, in every corner of our
cities, we see images like this.
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Hundreds of stories like this are told everyday.
It is time to create a social awareness in our
youth to have a hope of change for the future.
20 years old and a widow"Im six months
pregnant, yet I feel none of the joy of a
newly-wed woman and expectant mom.I havent
smiled since the day a group of men came to the
house asking for my husband. They took him
outside to talk, then they shot him twice. After
that I went to live to the city. I cry a lot. I
think about my baby and how hell never know his
father. I think about his future, and how Im
going to raise him.Nobody in the village can
understand what happened or why they killed a man
as upright as my husband, who had no links with
any side in the conflict. After they shot him,
and because of the armed groups everywhere, many
people left the area you know, when one lot
arrives the next is sure to come soon after, and
its always us civilians who bear the brunt.
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References
Bunting, Eve. How Many Days to America? A
Thanksgiving Story. http//www.refugeesinternation
al.org/content/article/detail/3093/?mission1722
http//www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf http//w
ww.db.idpproject.org/Sites/idpSurvey.nsf/wCountrie
s/Colombiaa http//www.desplazados.org.co/ http//
wilstar.com/holidays/thankstr.htm