We Got the Beat: Fibonacci Poems Part 1

National Poetry Month is over, but I am still teaching poetry.

The third graders at Northfield E. S. were blown away by Fibonacci poems. We were actually doing math, science and poetry at the same time. This was a great lesson for our first workshop together. Our main goals were counting beats and sticking to a theme -- plenty for the third graders to handle.

I'll post the first half of my Fib lesson today with some student poems. We'll do the second half of the lesson for Poetry Friday.

For several years, I've been using Robert Bly's poem "Conversation with a Mouse" as a first day elementary school warm-up. The poem is in the anthology Poetry Speaks to Children.

 

I use "Conversation with a Mouse" it to talk about how a poem can grow or travel in just a few short lines. Bly's poem begins with a mouse in its tiny nest. (I always have the children sit on the floor. It's a cozy poem, and sitting close together helps them appreciate the poem's tone.) By the concluding lines, Bly has taken us all the way to the Milky Way galaxy.

A Conversation With a Mouse

by Robert Bly

One day a mouse called to me from his curly nest:
"How do you sleep? I love curliness."
"Well, I like to be stretched out. I like my bones to be
All lined up. I like to see my toes way off over there."

"I suppose that's one way," the mouse said,
"but I don't like it.
The planets don't act that way, nor the Milky Way."

Read the rest of the poem here.

 

"Conversation with a Mouse" was a particularly good way to start a lesson on Fibonacci poems. I read the poem and we discussed its meaning. The children and I talked about the shape the Milky Way galaxy makes -- even shaping a double spiral with our hands. I asked them to remember the spiral shape. We'd be seeing it later in the workshop.

After the children returned to their desks, we looked at the science picture book Growing Patterns by Sarah C. Campbell. (Here is the author talking about the book.)

Growing Patterns explains the Fibonacci sequence in simple terms. The basics are: start with the number zero. The next number in the sequence is one. From this point, always add the two previous numbers to figure out the next number in the sequence.

0

1

(0+1=) 1

(1+1=) 2

(1+2=) 3

(2+3=) 5

(3+5=) 8

(5+8=) 13

and so on.

This sequence is seen frequently in nature, particularly in shapes like hurricanes, nautilus shells, and spiral galaxies (remember the Milky Way from "Conversation with a Mouse?") When I show the children a graphic of the Fibonacci spiral and then we look at a nautilus shell, I can see the brains lighting up!

"So," I ask the class, "can you predict how we are going to make a poem out of this pattern of numbers?" They quickly figure it out ... by counting syllables.

Tomorrow (second part of the workshop), we'll talk about the inventor of Fibonacci poems and read sample fibs.

For now, here are some Fibonacci poems by the Northfield third graders. I asked the children to aim for a science theme. Thank you to Northfield's staff and families for giving me permission to share these wonderful poems.

Storm Fib

by Stefan C.

rain (1)

storm (1)

lightning (2)

brightest bolt (3)

gigantic red flame (5)

animals running from big fire (8)

dangerous flame burning down a big brown and green tree (13)

Mars Fib

by Zachary D.

Mars (1)

red (1)

in space (2)

cold at night (3)

flying to this place (5)

darkness and stars surrounding it (8)

Moon Fib

by Brynn L.

Moon (1)

rock (1)

shining (2)

has craters (3)

smiling down at me (5)

crescent making the sky light up (8)

universetoday.com

I was at the USA Science & Engineering Festival this Saturday. There, I ran into some super mathematicians from The Association of Women in Mathematics. What were they teaching kids at the festival about? Fibonacci numbers. They were so excited when I told them about our poetry workshop. Of course, math is a language we use to describe the world around us, just as we do in poetry. 

You can check out the AWM website for some kid-friendly math worksheets. Then come back for the rest of the lesson and more Northfield poems tomorrow.

Poetry Friday: Idaho Shells

Here's a surprise from the 50 State Tour of Poets Laureate: Idaho is the only state with a writer-in-residence, rather than a P.L. (or nothing).

Current Writer-in-Residence is multiple-prize winning Anthony Doerr, known best for his short fiction. There is a formal bio on Doerr's website, but it's more fun reading about him at the Idaho Commission on the Arts. That's where I found this great photo of Doerr.

His best known book is probably The Shell Collector.

Did you do any shell collecting this summer? We did -- in Stone Harbor, NJ.

Inspired by summer, and the title of Doerr's book, I'm sharing "The Chambered Nautilus" by Oliver Wendell Holmes. It's an ode -- part biography of a shell, part mystical rumination.

With Nautilus shells, there's a lot to ruminate about. The chambers of the shell are a Fibonacci spiral.

The Chambered Nautilus

by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,

   Sails the unshadowed main,—

   The venturous bark that flings

On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings

In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,

   And coral reefs lie bare,

Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;

   Wrecked is the ship of pearl!

   And every chambered cell,

Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,

As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,

   Before thee lies revealed,—

Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

Year after year beheld the silent toil

   That spread his lustrous coil;

   Still, as the spiral grew,

He left the past year’s dwelling for the new,

Stole with soft step its shining archway through,

   Built up its idle door,

Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,

   Child of the wandering sea,

   Cast from her lap, forlorn! 

Read the rest at the Poetry Foundation.

My favorite concept in this poem is that the shell brings the poet a "heavenly message." When we slow down and pay attention -- isn't that what happens during shell seeking? -- it is a kind of meditation. I hope you get some shell seeking in before summer ends (2 weeks!)

Today's Poetry Friday host is The Stenhouse Blog.