Activity- The Desert is My Mother

The Desert is my Mother

Theme: Family and Landscape; The Desert

The Desert is my Mother is a wonderfully descriptive book for students to learn the powerful use of metaphors. The story uses elements of the desert to characterize a mother figure. Imagery illustrates nature by demonstrating what it provides us. The desert comes to life as a caring, supportive environment for the author.

Teaching with The Desert is my Mother is a great way to launch into a creative writing unit. Students can develop and understanding of how location and landscape can influence writing and culture. Realizing this connection helps students begin to broaden their horizons of what influences culture and literature.

Possible Read Aloud Discussion Points

Metaphors- It is important to address the metaphors in the story to help students understand what is being compared. Gather ideas about what the students think the methaphors mean and what elements of the landscape they connect with.

• "The desert is my mother"
• "I say feed me. She serves red prickly pear on a spiked cactus"
• "I say hold me, she whispers lie in my arms"
• "I say caress me, she strokes my skin with her warm breath"
• "I say sing to me, she chants her windy songs"

Vocabulary-

• Frightened
• Spiked cactus
• Prickly pear
• Chamomile
• Peppermint
• Oregano
• Caress
• Turquoise

Activities!

Create Metaphors: Writing Like Pat Mora- 

• Students can mimic the style of the book's writing and create their own metaphors, connecting elements from their own familiar landscapes with their family members.

• Brain storm in groups: familiar or favorite landscapes and people in their family

• Create metaphor pages with written and illustrated metaphors. The class could collect these metaphor pages and create a class metaphor reference book. This collection could be stored in the classroom for students to access during other creative writing activities.