THE LAST FIFTH GRADE OF EMERSON ELEMENTARY

THE LAST FIFTH GRADE OF EMERSON ELEMENTARY
April 12, 2016

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Third Grade Fibs

Last week, I taught the Northfield E.S. third graders how to fib.

How to write a fib, that is. We kicked off my annual poetry residency writing Fibonacci poems. The students loved the combination of math (we talked about the Fibonacci sequence and how it is derived from a mathematical formula), science (we looked at Fibonacci spirals in nature) and poetry (we figured out that a poem could follow the Fibonacci numbers by counting out syllables).

growing patterns cover
I use Sarah C. Campbell's book as a jumping off point for the Fibonacci lesson.
You can find my full Fibonacci lesson plan at this Fib post.

Here are some of the third graders' scientific poems. I like how Ethan combines the largeness of space with a small moment -- counting stars -- in his poem.

Ethan H.

Space
Stars
Planets
Some just found
Circling the sun
Counting the stars on a bright night

From http://www.destateparks.com/activities/stargazing/
Our local astronomy club is the Howard County Astronomical League.
They hold star gazing events for families.
Julian's weather-related Fibonacci poem tells a dramatic story.

Julian H.

Boom!
Whoosh!
Get down
Tornadoes
Go to the basement
Bring a radio and some food
Are we all here? One,  two, three, four, five. Good.
     We’re all here.
The tornado stopped but we’re trapped in the basement.
     Crack. Light. The police found us. We are safe.

From tornadofacts.com
Once we realized that dinosaurs are a scientific subject, Daniel was ready to write his poem.

Daniel C.

Dinosaur

Egg
Born
Reptile
Meat-eater
Hunting a Troodon
T-Rex are very dangerous

Image: Troodon formosus dinosaur
Learn about the Troodon at National Geographic.
And Zach was also interested in the power of the weather.

Zach B.

Hurricane

Rain
Hail
High winds
Powerful
Very deadly storm
Can destroy the whole ocean coast

Hurricanes form a Fibonacci spiral.
This is Super Storm Sandy at beforeitsnews.com
Want more fibs by kids? Read some here.

I'll post more third grade poems tomorrow for Poetry Friday, and that's no fib.

3 comments:

Tabatha said...

Great fibs! They really got the hang of it. My very favorite was Julian's.

Matt Forrest Esenwine said...

These are great! Always heartening to see kids getting into poetry.

Linda B said...

Really terrific, Laura. I shared that yesterday was fib day with my school. I hope some of them are writing fib poems like your students! I like the focus on science too!