Poetry Friday: You're Doing Math in Poetry?

Welcome, Northfield Elementary School poets! It's Poetry Friday!

This week's host is Liz at Growing Wild, and that's no Fib.
Stop by for more poetry links from around the Kidlitosphere.

This week, I began one of my favorite annual poetry residencies at Northfield E.S. I have leading poetry workshops in the third grade for seven years. Maybe eight. The teachers and I lost count.

What's new this year? The Common Core curriculum has come to Maryland and classroom teachers are adjusting to the new standards. I've heard -- and observed with my own 7th grader -- the good, the bad and the ugly of the Common Core.

 

One element that people are shaking their heads about: writing in math. In middle school, it looks like a three paragraph essay explaining how you solved a problem.

In my poetry classes, it looks like this:

A mathematical graph of the Fibonacci sequence PLUS

science (Fibonacci spirals in nature) EQUALS

poetry?

The Northfield third graders are a brainy bunch. They quickly saw that we could take the Fibonacci numbers and use them to count syllables, creating a poem that matches the numerical sequence.

 

To read my full Fibonacci Poetry lesson plan, please visit last year's FIB POST. Also, check out Poetry Friday blogger and Fib inventor Greg Pincus's explanation of the form.

 

Common Core is doable... when you give teachers some flexibility to be creative and teach. The Northfield poets deftly wrote POEMS about SCIENCE using a MATHEMATICAL sequence. Let's give them some snaps. (We don't clap in poetry class. Snaps put us in a rhythmic mood.)

 

Here are two poets from Ms. Pruitt's homeroom, and their super, scientific, sequential Fibonacci poems.

Ally K.

Bees

smell

nectar

flowers

buzzing when they fly

sense of responsibility

www.texasbees.com

I found Ally's last line to be fascinating. Bees are following their instincts when they collect pollen. Yet, their behavior is responsible for the health of the plants they pollinate.

Another Pruitt poet took a favorite subject, orangutans, and went all the way to 34 syllables with his scientific information about the primates.

 

Teddy J.

Look!

Wow!

In the

treetops there

are orangutans

swinging from vine to vine. Then they

jump around to the ground to scoop up durians. They

then climb back up to the tops of the trees to make a leafy nest to sleep in, but the

baby one doesn’t want to go to sleep. The mama orangutan sings her little one a song and

     he goes to sleep. Good night, “forest people!”

www.primates.com

Originally, Teddy wrote "scoop up yummy fruit" in line 7. But he knew so much about orangutans -- I had a feeling he might know the name of this primate's favorite fruit. Sure enough, he did, and "durians" was the perfect number of syllables for the line.

Durian fruit from hungrytravels.com

I'll be blogging about our poetry workshops for the next several weeks. Thanks to the teachers and families at Northfield for inviting me to visit again this year, and for giving me permission to share their talented third graders' amazing poems.

Sweet Tooth Poetry

Yesterday was the poetry open house at Northfield Elementary. We had many parents, grandparents and friends come to hear the third graders read their poems.

 

The food poems, in particular, are a favorite of the visiting families because of food's connection to family traditions. In this workshop, I do give kids the option of using their five senses to describe a food. However, I encourage them to extend their poem, because foods can remind us of people, places, and memories.

A few years ago, my friend Christine's son was among the third grade students at Northfield. As usual, when introducing the workshop on food poetry, we spent time talking about special foods in the children's families. I reminded the children, "It doesn't have to be a holiday food. You can write about a food that someone important makes for you. Maybe your aunt has a recipe for brownies, and no one else makes brownies as delicious as hers."

Christine's son took that to heart. He wrote a sweet poem about his grandmother's oatmeal. The whole family got such a kick out of the poem, they framed the final draft. The boy's grandmother, it turns out, was not the cookie-baking, apron-wearing type. Oatmeal was her one and only specialty.

Oatmeal from www.foodchannel.com

In reading these third-grade food poems, look for the poets connecting a food to a specific experience or to the emotions of sharing a meal or a treat with someone they love. You will notice that we spent some time working on sensory images and similes before writing.

All my poets today share my love for sweets. Get ready for a sugar rush, readers!

Cotton Candy

by Jane H.

Fluff, sweet cotton candy.

It melts in my mouth.

They are the little clouds

that you can see up high

in the sky.

Pink, blue, purple, yellow!

The rainbow is what I see.

It is so sweet, it smells like sugar.

The fluff so soft, like my cat's fur.

A whoosh, a whirl, my cotton candy

finally made.

Poof poof poof

Chomp!

Yum!

I love cotton candy.

www.polyvore.com

S'Mores

by James K.

You and me

ride the car

to the food store.

We get the marshmallows

and the crackers, my favorite,

the chocolate. We go back

home and my dad gets out the grill.

We open the bags of

delicious food. I feel the

marshmallow that feels

like my fluffy pillow. Once

you put it in the

oven it melts down all

over the place. I take it

out and put it on the

table to cool. I pour my melted

chocolate in the bowl of the

white stew. I get the spoon

and mix it together and

lick it off the spoon. It tastes

like ice cream and sounds like

they day passing. It smells

like fresh baked cake. I dip

the spoon and put it on the

crackers and put it together.

My food is s'mores.

Not going camping any time soon? Here is a recipe for "Boiler S'mores."

Ice Cream

by Kiran V.

In the summer after dinner

my family goes to get ice cream

Sometimes my friend comes with us. When

we get hte ice cream it smells like

all my favorite things put together in one. It

looks like whipped cream with candy.

It sounds like somebody licking a lollipop.

It feels like creamy ice. It tastes like heaven

when it goes into your mouth. Ice cream

is the best thing in the world, ask my

friend. Oh, I love sitting outside

looking at the stars as we eat.

Easter Chocolate

by Sofia M.

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Abuelita and Abuelito!

Yay! They're here!

Sister and I run up to the front door.

Creak... the door opens.

We can smell the sweet chocolate

that they bring every year!

Mami and Papa come up to greet

Abuelita and Abuelito.

"Time to get the chocolate open!!!"

the grandparents say.

Thump!

The chocolate gets set down on the table.

Sister and I look inside our

Easter baskets.

Chocolate! Chocolate

1, 2, 3... 20 chocolates!!?

That's a lot of chocolate!

Gobble up the chocolate!

Delicious!

But what makes the memory special

is the love all around.

Thanks to the Northfield staff and families for allowing me to share these delicious poems.

Teaching Stanzas Part 2

On Monday, I posted a lesson in teaching stanzas to elementary schoolers.

Using Elizabeth Coatsworth's "Swift Things Are Beautiful" as a model, my Northfield third graders chose a pair of opposites with which they could explore a particular theme. Since opposites have two distinct parts, it's easy for young writers to figure out their two distinct stanzas.

John offered the opposite "Extreme/Boring." I expected him to write about extreme sports, and ho-hum activities. Instead, he wrote two small character sketches. Look at the level of observation John uses in the details that describe his Extreme guy and Boring girl.

Poet:    John F.

Grade: 3

Teacher: Hilliard

Extreme and Boring

He is extreme since he has

All the video game systems known

To man. He can do a pop-a-wheelie

On his motorcycle, and can

Jump a moat that is filled with

Sharks, and also wears leather.

She is boring since she

Only listens to classical music,

Only reads. She also watches

Only educational TV, and she

Doesn’t eat any candy or

Soda, and wears sweater vests.

 

Ere connected the opposites to herself and something she enjoys -- sports. Her opposites were Win/Lose. I love how the taste of the snacks reveal the emotions our speaker feels.

Poet: Ere O.

Grade 3

Teacher: Taliano

Win

When I win,

I go crazy.

I slap my friends on the back,

Cry with joy,

And the snacks are so yummy.

Dad is going to be sooo happy!

I just won a championship game.

When I lose,

I’m frustrated.

My head’s down low.

I’m crying.

My snacks have no taste.

My dad is mad.

I feel like I lost championship game.

Wonderful third grade educator Karen Hoge stopped by Leyla's desk during writing time. Leyla is new to the United States. She and Ms. Hoge decided a natural opposite for Leyla to write about would be her country of origin and her new home.

Poet: Leyla S.

Grade 3

Teacher: Hoge

Russia and America

Russia and America are

really different, you know.

Russia is very old and has

a lot of history.

America is new and

shiny and full of funny

things, and the one school

I like most of all.

It’s Northfield, the best

school in the world.

It's fascinating that one prompt had such varied responses from the kids. One of the best things about working as a visiting poet is seeing how young writers take the prompts and turn them into expressions of what's on their minds and in their hearts.

Great job to these poets! Thank you for giving me permission to post your work.

Tomorrow is Poetry Friday. I've got some delicious Northfield food poems to share. See you then.