GRACIAS The Thanksgiving Turkey By: Joy Cowley

Book Genre: Fiction

Publishing Info: Scholastic en Espanol (October 1, 1998), 32 pages

Awards or honors received: None received.

Summary: GRACIAS The Thanksgiving Turkey is about a boy Miguel, who has two main worries. 1.) If his papa, a truck driver, was going to make it home for Thanksgiving and 2.) If his new amiga (the turkey-a gift given from his papa) was going to get eaten for the Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey ends up staying with the boy in a New York City apartment, being walked on a chain, ends up going to church and gets blessed by the preacher. Once the turkey gets blessed, the family decides to eat chicken instead of turkey for their Thanksgiving meal. The turkey happily gets sent to the local zoo after Thanksgiving where Miguel knows his amiga is safe and won’t be eaten.

Personal rating and reason for rating: ***Good. I teach many of our ESL children in kindergarten since my assistant can speak fluent Spanish. I try and incorporate Spanish into my classroom as much as I can. I was excited when I came across this book in our library because I could use this book when teaching about turkey’s in my Thanksgiving unit. I really like how it incorporates Spanish throughout the book and having a glossary in the back which tells what each word means is nice. (Abuela-grandmother and Abuelo-grandfather etc.)

Reading level: 2.8 (2nd grade, 8th month)

Interest level: Pre-k through 3rd

Possible uses of the text in integrated units of study:

Reading: Before reading this story, I would introduce the word of the day by playing a game with the students. I would have a picture of a turkey on a large index card with the word turkey next to it. I would give students a clue and then reveal one letter in the word turkey. I would continue until students have guessed the word of the day. (Turkey) I would have the students look at the cover and guess what they think the story would be about. I would ask the question, the boy on the cover is putting his arm around the turkey sitting next to him. Could this really happen? I would read the story and then when completed ask HOTS questions. We would complete a graphic organizer as a class about what happen in the beginning, middle and end. This would also be a good story to talk about problem/solution.

**Before reading the story, I could list all the Spanish words in the book on the board and have my ESL children help me write what they mean. This will help make a connection for my students who do not understand/know Spanish.

Writing: The little boy was excited about hearing the news that his father had sent him a present in the mail. Miguel goes through a list of things that his father could have sent. The writing prompt I would give my students would be. What was the best gift you ever received from your dad? (Make sure you know your students so if a child does not have a dad, you can prepare accordingly so that child does not get upset.)

Craft: Have students make a turkey out of a large white paper plate. Students could make their own feathers and glue on the back of the plate. I would have all the pieces to the turkey traced so all the children would have to do is cut and glue. We will complete this activity step-by-step.

Potential problems or difficulties: I do not see any difficulties at this time.