#EquationPoem 4

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

A few of you have mentioned finding these hard to write, but once you get the hang of them, I promise they’re a blast. Try this. Think of something you love, like a season or a hobby. Then think of the two elements you think MOST define that season or hobby. Add them together and, voila–an equation poem. For instance, fall is my favorite season, so…

crisp + maples = fall

leaves + ground = fall

gold + hillsides = fall

school + hello! = fall

Or…I like knitting, so…

needles + yarn = knitting

fingers + flying = knitting

tangles + tears = knitting

needles + time = scarves

See how easy that is? If you love fall or knitting, your equations might be totally different than mine. That’s what makes them great!

Now, here’s today’s equation poem. Yesterday morning, our younger daughter was visiting from Madison, WI. As we drove to Taco Bell in the morning for some art time, two wild turkeys strutted across the road just a block from our home. Seriously, we live about 4 blocks from the Minnesota State Capitol, and…wild turkeys. I love it!

And if you love equation poems, check out my Snowman-Cold=Puddle: Spring Equations, published by Charlesbridge and with gorgeous art by Micha Archer.

Snowman - Cold = Puddle: Spring Equations

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.

7 Responses

  1. I love your equation poems. What a great idea!! Thanks for sharing.

  2. I am giving these a go! They are fun. Hoping eventually I will get a few that are of the “more remarkable” variety!
    Glass vase + (white lilies x 10) = Happy Easter memories

    1. This daily practice is a good reminder for me that I have to write a lot of them to get one special one. If 1 or 2 of the 30 I will share this month end up being really surprising or somehow special, that’ll be wonderful. But hopefully the rest will at least be fun :>) I like this one a lot, Janet!

  3. Laura, nature is so amazing. You have perfectly captured that amazement here in your equation poem and photo. Tourists is so clever. I love seeing wild turkeys. This reminds me of day when my daughters and I were following turkey tracks and they suddenly ended at the base of a tree. I looked up at the tree and asked, my girls who were around ten and eight then, what do you think? Later at home we found out turkeys fly up to roost in trees. We were surprised. I’m not sure if the following equation poem implies that memory well enough, though.

    turkey tracks — turkey tracks + tree = roosting It’s not like the tracks were taken away, they just ended. Maybe the following equation poem is better.

    turkey tracks + tree = roosting

    Thank you for the inspiration, your above explanations, and all of your poems. I’m having fun writing equation poems.

    1. I love how you’re trying different approaches, Gail. Fantastic! So much of it is trial and error. What a great memory. I think I’ve heard before that turkeys roost in trees, but I know I would be shocked to actually see it! So happy you’re poeming along this month!

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