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Poetry Friday is with Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge
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
dill flowers by Sarah Campbell
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.
Click here to read my students’ posts on Kidblog.
Reflections on the Teche 