Do you know what a fractal is? I had a vague idea, but certainly didn’t know enough to teach my students about them. Nonfiction books are wonderful ways to introduce new concepts to students. At the SCBWI MS/LA regional conference last weekend, I ran into Sarah Campbell. Her most recent book caught my eye and my curiosity. I knew it was be a favorite in my classroom.
Sarah describes fractals through photographs and simple descriptions.
Every fractal shape has smaller parts that look like the whole shape. Fractals are everywhere in nature, and can form in different ways. A tree is a fractal. It starts with one shape that changes in the same way over, and over, and over again.
–Sarah Campbell, Mysterious Patterns: Finding Fractal in Nature
I wondered aloud with my students if there would be a poetry pattern designed after fractals, as we have Zeno poems from J. Patrick Lewis and Fib poems from Greg Pincus and others that come from mathematical patterns. We did a quick Google search and a poetry exercise evolved.
Fractal poem: Choose a root word. List words that use that root. Create a poem that uses one of your words in each line.
Frag
By Madison
A frag of hope
in the fragment of
a diamond,
sparkling
and flaring
like a
fragile
piece of
orange glass
a fragrance
of a delicious
orange.
Enlighten Poem
by Andrew
There is lightning in every storm
which is a light of hope
and in every lighted room
there is faith.
And in every room is a child
enlightened by a night-light.
And all the moonlight that shines
on this Earth, there is life.
Hope
by Margaret Simon
Hope is in the seed
Food of hope within
Hoping light will shine
Enter my hopeful seed
Hopefulness, dance with me
Take hopelessness away
Grow more hopeful in each day
Hope is in the seed.
Your students are amazing. Give Madison a high-five for me. That poem of hers is exquisite! Andrew, I love your take on light and lightning…..so sharp.
I have hope too
I am a seed
hoping to see
people blooming
with peace, kindness
and empathy
I loved Madison’s when I first read it, and still do. I love yours and Andrew’s, too! What a great writing prompt this turned out to be! I liked your word image, too. How did you do it? (the one on your class blog, I think, with all the colors divided).
We used tagul.com. I thought posting them here might crowd the post.
Thanks, Margaret. I’ve go to go try that. Looks like fun!
Fractal poems! This is great, Margaret. It is something I will definitely use. Now to order the book. And the poems by Madison and Andrew are great kid-mentor texts. I love “Hope” especially the two lines “Hopefulness, dance with me Take hopelessness away” Thanks so much for sharing!
I loved Mysterious Patterns, and I love fractals. Have you read The Shack? My favorite part was when Mack and the Holy Spirit are in the garden, and Mack complains how messy it is. However, the Holy Spirit explains that when seen from above, it’s a perfect fractal. Anyway, the fractal poems are beautiful! I need to try that out sometime!
Wow! I love how your exploration of fractals led to learning and writing and sharing new creations. I had hear of fractals (and knew very little) but not of fractal poems.
Fabulous that you created this with the students. Love them, Margaret.
What an exciting project! I’ve always believed that the arts and the sciences shouldn’t be seen or kept apart as polar opposites – there is so often poetry in science and math, and vice versa!
Intriguing exercise – for your students, as well as those of us who call ourselves adults. I’ll have to play around with this!
I love everything about this post – the new-to-me book, a new word, your student poems, and a new form for me to try! Thank you for sharing such goodness.
Your students put together beautiful words and images, as did you. This is another post I need to mark and share with teachers when they get to the poetry unit. Thank you, Margaret!
These poems are so creative, Margaret. I can’t wait to try writing a fractal poem. Thank you for sharing this form with us!
[…] « SOL 17: Fractal Poetry […]
I love this concept! What a beautiful idea. Leave it to nature to do something so clever. These poems are wonderful. What a great way to infuse word study into the day.
What fun. I love this fractal poem idea, root, stem, twig and fruit.
Fantastic prompt idea for poems, Margaret – and congrats to the young poets for their terrific writing. Mississippi used to be in SCBWI Southern Breeze and I used to get to see Sarah at conferences; love her work! :0)
These are beautiful poems Margaret, thanks for sharing them all. I think we can never have too much hope. The book looks enchanting too, and I’d like to try this fractal poem.