For National Poetry Month 2021, I’m posting an equation poem each day. Maybe with an image, maybe without. I needed something very accessible and doable this year! Maybe you feel the same way? I’d love for you to join me, and here are several options for sharing your own or your students’ equation poems:
- in the comments below
- on social media with #EquationPoem–and be sure to tag me, please! (@LauraPSalas on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook)
- on the Padlet on my bookpage here
Here’s today’s equation poem, inspired by the fountains at the Pavilion on the National Mall.
And if you love equation poems, check out my Snowman-Cold=Puddle: Spring Equations, published by Charlesbridge and with gorgeous art by Micha Archer.
Happy poeming!
P.S. Click here if you want to see all of this month’s equation poems!
P.P.S. If you like these, you might also love This Plus That, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace, and Mathematickles, by Betsy Franco and Steve Salerno.
P.P.P.S. Mary Lee has the Poetry Friday Roundup here!
23 Responses
I always love reading your equation poems, Laura! Now I’ll get to read one every day in April. Maybe I’ll even try one myself!
I can’t wait to share these with my students and see what they come up with!
I love this!! I don’t think they are simple or doable though, I think they would require a huge leap from the concrete to the creative! I’m going to show this to my sixth graders and see if they come up with any. And I’ve added equation poem to the list of forms I might try to use this month.
Thanks, Carol–They are! Just start with something simple, like…summer. Ask “What are the two things FOR ME that mean summer?” Then you have it: walks + kayaking = summer. Or whatever. Check out the teaching guide and kid examples on https://laurasalas.com/snowman/ Have fun!
Yet again, I love how you’ve created a poem for a specific image! Now that you’ve introduced parentheses, I’m also looking forward to seeing how far you go with your mathematics. 🙂
Haha–I’m trying to keep them very simple. We won’t have any quadratic poems or anything :>)
So good! Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
I love the idea of equation poems, espcially in a year when brevity is so needed. I don’t know if I will ever look at a fountain in the same way again.
Love the imagining, Laura!
oooooooooh! Love the fountain that is a spider. That’s so neat! I’m glad you find the form easy/accessible. I think and think and think to get one equation. But, I’ll try a few.
So much to think about here, Laura. Ways of seeing. Love this. Trying to write quick ones. Putting two on the 3rd’s post to make up for not finishing yesterday!
I love your equation poems. Maybe I’ll get brave enough to try some.
Do it!
A literal ‘water spider’, Laura! Brilliant! I, too, am going to give the equation poem form a go this month. Thank you!
Coooooool. I like the watercoloring and the font, too. Changes the feel to something kind of alchemical.
Your equation poems are always wonderful, Laura! I especially love that the math is a bit more challenging in this poem. So clever!
It’s amazing how your equations transformed your photo–I can’t stop seeing a huge hairy spider creeping towards me!
Mwah hahaha!
How clever of you to see a spider here! Love it!
It seems like we’re both on the “very accessible and doable” NPM train this year, Laura. 😉 Love what you came up with for that spidery fountain!
Wow, a spider! Laura, your equation poem is such a creative connection. Love this.
Love your water-sparkling spider and poem, it feels like it’s coming for us… I may never see a fountain the same way after seeing yours, terrific—these are so fun too, thanks!
The best compliment a poet can hear–thank you!