Writing Ideas: Photograph Your Small Treasures

Invite your students to gather some small artefacts from around the house. Have them arrange the gathered items in a pleasing design, then when satisfied that the items are clearly presented- take a photograph. These simple items form a pictorial topic list that writers may delve into. Each one has its own unique story just waiting to emerge. If your students don't have access to a camera have them bring the selected items to school and do the snapping there! This is a wonderful stimulus for promoting talking and thinking about wriitng intentions. try it yourself first and share your discoveries with your students. Show them the writing that springs forth. The photo above repesents my quick household gatherings. The writing that follows sprung from scanning and thinking about the assorted items.

Sea Glass

The beach is not a place to labour
Too warm and damp
And soft
Never a place to conjure flights of fancy
It rises against one’s mind
Washing away thoughts of tidy resolution
One is captured by the rhythms of the shore
Waves lapping the beach
Wind in the trees of the scrubby headland
The slow flapping of a giant tern
Skimming the surface
We fall under the spell of beach scenes
We relax
We stretch
And our thoughts flatten
Leaving our minds bare and open
As solitary as the shoreline at sunrise
The thoughts of the day
Erased
Just as the tide washes away yesterday’s markings
The jagged edges of our minds are gently smoothed
Like sea glass


This is the sea’s gift.


Alan J Wright





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