Hassan is a young boy who recently moved to America with his family from Somalia. On his first day of school in America he starts to feel homesick and doesn't feel like he belongs. Although the other children make him feel welcome, he doesn't speak English, which causes him to become frustrated. One day the class was instructed to paint a picture of anything that they desired. Hassan began to paint a bright, uplifting picture, but soon altered it to become dark and full of red blood. When his teacher asked what his picture meant, he explained that his uncle was killed during the war in Somalia and was not able to move to America with the rest of his family. The next day at school Hassan decided to make a new painting of a happy family with bright colors. He later brought the painting home, and told his mother to hang it up on the wall to bring the colors into their new "home".
I would use this in the classroom to promote acceptance of someone who might not be the same culture or speak the same language as you. I might have them share with the class a time that they felt homesick, or a time that they felt like they didn't belong. This book could also be used as part of a social studies lesson about the wars that happen in Somalia, or about what a war is in general. As an activity, I would have the students draw or paint their own picture of how they would display their "home". They could paint anything that they felt depicted what their sense of home is. Once they were finished, I would have them share to the class and explain why they painted their home as they did.
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