Welcome to Xpress Plugged In, our new online gallery of student expressions. Please follow the submission instructions CAREFULLY. New work will be posted every Monday.
-- Nancy Green, editor of XPI
Happy Fall, watercolor and marker
Cole Wilson, second grade, Roosevelt Elementary School, Tampa
In a place not very far from here,
Where the soil is rich and a banyan tree grows,
The tree looks up at the cotton clouds
And the clouds look back on the green canopy below.
Green as the solid, bright, grass,
Grown from the rich soil far below.
Below the canopy, thick hard brown bark, brown as a horse's hair.
"What creatures live around you, tree?" I ask.
"Around you, the air tastes sweet and moist, smells misty.
You look beautiful and tall.
I hear the sounds of the wonderful birds, singing among your branches.
I feel your silky leaves and your bumpy bark.
Around you, tree, is the most wonderful life, beautiful life, glorious life."
Shannon Menke, third grade, Lakeview Fundamental Elementary School, St. Petersburg
Fancy Turkey, watercolor and marker
Hannah Wilson, fifth grade, Roosevelt Elementary School, Tampa
She loves gymnastics,
says her willingness to go to the gym five times a week.
She likes being with friends,
say the pictures hanging on her bedroom walls.
She loves the bars at gymnastics,
say the blisters and calluses covering the palms of her hands.
But she doesn't like getting up in the morning,
says the cranky girl that will not speak to anyone!
Alexa Mattessich, eighth grade, homeschooled, Palm Harbor
Pumpkins for Sale, watercolor and marker
Frankie Wilson, sixth grade, Coleman Middle School, Tampa