A poem about celebrating everyday moments
Learning Objective: Students will analyze the theme of a poem and then write their own poem.
Every Day
My hundred-year-old next-door neighbor told me:
every day is a good day if you have it.
I had to think about that a minute.
She said, Every day is a present
someone left at your birthday place at the table.
Trust me! It may not feel like that
but it’s true. When you’re my age
you’ll know. Twelve is a treasure.
And it’s up to you
to unwrap the package gently,
lift out the gleaming hours
wrapped in tissue,
don’t miss the bottom of the box.
From A Maze Me by Naomi Shihab Nye. Illustrated by Terre Maher. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Writing Contest
Choose any day from your life—it could be yesterday or it could be years ago—and imagine it as a present. Then write a poem about what’s inside the box. Be sure to say what’s at the bottom. Entries must be submitted to Poetry contest by a teacher, parent, or legal guardian.* Three winners will each get Everything Comes Next by Naomi Shihab Nye.
*Entries must be written by a student in grades 4-12 and submitted by their teacher, parent, or legal guardian, who will be the entrant and must be a legal resident of the U.S. age 18 or older. See Contest Page for details.
This poem was originally published in the November 2024 issue.
1. Read and Discuss
(30 minutes)
As a class, listen to the audio read-aloud of the poem, located in the Resources tab in Teacher View and at the top of the story page in Student View.
For a second read, invite students to read the poem silently to themselves. Then discuss the following questions as a class.
Featured Skill: Poetry Analysis (20 minutes)
1. Who is the speaker of the poem? How do you know? You can infer that the speaker of the poem is a 12-year-old. The speaker’s neighbor tells the speaker “twelve is a treasure,” and you can infer the neighbor says this because the speaker is 12.
2. Who is the speaker getting advice from? What reasons does this person give the speaker to trust what they are saying? The speaker is getting advice from their 100-year-old next-door neighbor. The neighbor tells the speaker “Trust me!” and refers to their age and experience as a reason to do so (“When you’re my age/you’ll know.”).
3. In the second line, the neighbor says, “every day is a good day if you have it.” What do you think the neighbor means? Students might offer that the neighbor is saying we are lucky to have every day that we are alive—that there is something important or valuable to be found in every single day.
4. What metaphor does the poet Naomi Shihab Nye use in the poem? What idea is she expressing through this metaphor? In the poem, Nye compares each day of one’s life to a birthday present. Nye uses this metaphor to express the idea that every day contains something special that we should be grateful to receive.
5. After telling the speaker that every day is a present, the neighbor says, “It may not feel like that/but it’s true.” Why might the neighbor say this? The neighbor is acknowledging that some days feel like anything but a present—that some days in fact seem quite awful. The neighbor may be letting the speaker know that any doubts the speaker has about the idea of every day being a present are understandable. But at the same time, when the neighbor says “it’s true,” the neighbor may be suggesting that their age and experience have given them a perspective that the speaker should consider.
6. In the last line of the poem, the neighbor says, “don’t miss the bottom of the box.” What do you think this line means? An item at the bottom of a box can sometimes be overlooked because it is small or buried in tissue paper, for example. In saying “don’t miss the bottom of the box,” the neighbor is encouraging the speaker to be mindful of every moment and every experience—even those that might seem small or insignificant.
2. Write Your Own Poem
(30 minutes)
Have students complete the Poetry Planner. This activity will help them brainstorm ideas and provide tips for writing their own poem in response to the prompt:
Choose any day from your life—it could be yesterday or it could be years ago—and imagine it as a present. Then write a poem about what’s inside the box. Be sure to say what’s at the bottom.
Alternatively, have students choose a task from the Choice Board, a menu of culminating tasks. (Our Choice Board options include the writing prompt from the magazine, differentiated versions of the writing prompt, and additional creative ways for students to demonstrate their understanding of a story or poem.)
