Try This! - Write from One Little Word

From Student Tyler:

Do you ever feel like a picture has a meaning and you want to write about that feeling? You want to write how it makes you feel. How it makes you wonder. You write about what it really means to you in a special way.

From Teacher Margaret Simon:

My students are collectors of words.  Words can lead to ideas that can then lead to poems.  Tyler, a sixth grader, watched the Emaze presentation I created about to choose One Little Word to help guide one's life.

After watching the Emaze, Tyler chose the word “within” for his 2015 One Little Word.  He placed the word in the center of his journal page and drew a word web around it.   His webbing led to an introspective poem.  

You can watch my One Little Word Emaze here and then think a good word for your life.  List a few possibilities in your notebook.  Once you choose one little word to guide you for now, go ahead and collect ideas that come to your mind. You may wish to do this in a web, as Tyler did, and as he did, you might want to turn your webbed words into a poem.

Here is Tyler's web along with the poem that grew from it:

Click to Enlarge this Notebook Entry

Inside Power 

Look inside for power.
You have the courage to forgive.
We all have a life that is unfair.
Have hope in the times of need,
and cherish the moments with
your family.

by Tyler

Tyler just completed sixth grade at Jefferson Island Elementary School in New Iberia, Louisiana.

Margaret Simon is a teacher of elementary gifted students in New Iberia, Louisiana.  She lives on the Bayou Teche where many poems are inspired.  She blogs at http://reflectionsontheteche.wordpress.com.