Ground Level Fib Poems

The following photos and poems were written by third grade students at St. Therese Catholic School. Read more about the project here and check out their flower Fib poems from yesterday. Most of these poems were inspired by photographs taken at ground level. There are more spring flowers of the wild variety, but there is also a photo of a crawdad hole that C. R. identifies as a snake hole. Either way, it is worth reading and seeing! The exception to "ground level photos" is B. L.'s humorous poem/photo of red berries in a category of its own. I can testify from experience that B. L.'s personality matches his poem!

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Fibonacci by V. B.

buds
dark
nice things
rain forest
purple white sunshine
fairy tale land with white flowers

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Fibonacci Poem by S. C.

green
blue
yellow
beautiful
I love bright flowers
I love nature, trees, birds, and grass.

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All About Flowers by K. C.

buds
leaves
so bright
beautiful
as the midnight sky
God's creation is in full bloom.

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Fibonacci Poem by C. R.

snake
hole
brownish
hiding in
a secret, dark spot;
giant, brownish, scary snake hole!

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Fibo What?

Brown
Red
Berry.
Beautiful.
Looks good to eat it.
I want to cook and eat it bad.

Flower Fib Poetry

This group of poems and photographs by third grade students at St. Therese Catholic School focuses on flowers in full bloom. See yesterday's post for more information about this arts integrated project. Happy Earth Day!

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Fib Poem by C. B.

Pink
green
flowers
bursting high
happy, loving thoughts.
It's spring time in the world around.

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Fibonacci by A. N.

Small
blooms
pansies
bright, green leaves
beautiful purple
shining pollen on the flowers.

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Fibonacci Poem by C. L.

Pink
white
pretty
tall, green grass
reaching for the sun
drinking water from down below.

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Fibonacci Poem by T. H.

White
green
flowers
growing nice
like a tear of sky
shining in the sky like a bird.

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Flowers by L.B.

Cute
green
purple
beautiful
purple as my church dress.
The yellow pollen peeking out.

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Come back on Friday for 5 more student Fib poems and photographs.

Fib Poetry Readings

How can you celebrate National Poetry Month, National School Library Month, and Earth Day all at the same time? It's easy! Host an author in your library who writes about nature, go outside to take photographs of nature, write poetry based on your photographs, and have a poetry reading in your library to celebrate everyone's creativity and hard work. This is exactly what third graders at St. Therese Catholic School have done during April through a special author/teacher/librarian collaboration (see my last post on this topic to catch up). On Monday, April 18th, Sarah Campbell returned to our library to listen to thirteen poems based on student photographs and read from student-made Fib accordion books.

Each student took my "read-aloud" chair to share their book. First, they read their poems without letting us see the inside of their books or their photographs. We practiced making mental images from the words of the poem and then compared our images to the actual photograph on a second reading of the poem in which the student also revealed their photograph. Sometimes we were able to predict the subject of the photograph, and sometimes we were surprised that the final image was different from our mental image. As Sarah Campbell remarked, listening to the thirteen poems all together made her remember in new ways the beautiful day we had spent outside taking our photographs. The students did a wonderful job!

Over the next few days, I will share the students' original poems and photographs a few at a time so that we may continue to celebrate poetry. The students' books will also be on display in the library for all classmates to see on Earth Day (April 22nd). Finally, Sarah and I are taking the books and this project to a workshop we're facilitating at the annual convention for the International Reading Association in Chicago on Monday, April 25, 2010.

We concluded our poetry reading with some cookies and fresh pineapple (a Fibonacci fruit!). Sarah signed and dedicated a copy of Growing Patterns to our library so that we may continue to learn about the special relationship between math, science, and nature through Fibonacci numbers. Thank you, Sarah, for collaborating with me and with the third graders at St. Therese Catholic School!

And now, for a few of the students' poems and photographs. Three students chose to photograph and write about nature subjects related to trees:

Trees, Trees by J. P.

Trees, trees
Beauty
Prettiness
That I really know.
Trees, trees gracefully that I see.

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Fibo Number by B. B.

Birds
live
in trees
laying eggs
living a new life.
Their children live a new life, too.

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Spring Fib Poem by J. R.

Brown
branch
sunshine
reflects on
sharp, hanging pine cone
I see it on my springtime walk.

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Check back tomorrow for more student photos and poetry.

Writing Fib Poems

Third grade students are well on their way to publishing their Fib poem accordion books! To review, they have visited with author and photographer, Sarah Campbell, to learn about her new book, Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature. They have taken their own digital photographs on the school grounds and chosen their favorite photos to use in their books. They have constructed blank Fib accordion books in which to write and illustrate their poems with a photograph and other drawings. On Wednesday, they wrote their Fib poems.

Each student had a manila folder with their photograph and a "Fib Poem Template" with which to work. Fib poems are similar to haikus in that each line of the poem has a certain number of syllables. These students had already written haikus for a unit on Charlotte's Web and cinquains for a unit on snowflakes and crystals with their classroom teacher, Mrs. Holder, earlier in the year. The syllable count for a Fib poem is based upon the first few numbers in the Fibonacci sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8.

Mrs. Tarleton, St. Therese's art and music teacher and my co-teacher for literature connection class, was also on hand to help guide students through the process of brainstorming, counting syllables, writing, and revising. To help get them started, Mrs. Tarleton suggested students brainstorm and write down words and phrases about their photographs. We asked them questions such as:

• What colors, shapes, and textures do you see in your photograph?


• What does your photograph make you feel or think?


• What do you remember about taking your photograph?


• Does your photograph remind you of anything?


• What do you know about the subject of your photograph?

We all used our fingers to count syllables! Many of the students chose a similar word for the fourth line of the poem which demands 3 syllables: "beautiful." The day on which we took photos was beautiful, and their nature subjects of springtime were also beautiful. The poems are all different, however, and reflect their personalities and interests.

On Thursday after checking out new books for the week, students wrote their poems on the folded pages of their Fib accordion book. On Friday, the students will illustrate their books in their classroom. Sarah Campbell will return to St. Therese on Monday for thirteen book readings as the students share their completed books and poems with her and with each other. We have tried to keep their photo choices and poems secret so that the final sharing session will be a surprise to all!

Photography on the Playground

Day 2 of Sarah Campbell's visit with third graders from St. Therese Catholic School took us outside. The weather could not have been better. We had morning sunshine (good for photos), mild temperatures (good for exploring), and many spring wildflowers (good for photo subjects).

Before we went off in our groups, Sarah gave the students a few pointers about taking photos. We also instructed them to only take horizontal photos because the books we are making will have a horizontal shape. Sarah took 7 children and 3 cameras to share. I took 6 children with 2 cameras. Both Sarah and I also had our own cameras to document the children taking photos and to take a few photos of our own. Check out Sarah's blog post about yesterday to see some of her photos using a macro lens.

By the time we made it outside and were ready to start shooting, we only had about 30 minutes left. Each student had a camera for about 9 or 10 minutes. Some students took over 20 photos, while others only took 5 or 6 photos. The students also chose to take their photos from many different angles (as seen in the photos below). Whether we were crouching down low or aiming high, we all discovered things about our school ground that we might not have noticed before.

One student remarked to me, "Mrs. Owen, I think there is always nature to see if we just take the time to look."

My response: "Absolutely!"

In half an hour, we saw ants, sparrows, insects, many flowers, trees, pine cones, pollen, berries, buds, tree bark, crawdad holes, water, mud, grass, blue sky, leaves new and old, rocks, tree limbs, and lichens. I'm looking forward to meeting with each student individually to review their photos and choose their favorite photo for the book-making and poetry writing next week.

Recital

Recital

arms
legs
graceful
elegant
pointed toes reaching
ballerinas dancing music

This poem is a Fib-- a form I learned about from Sarah Campbell here. (The Fib is a creation of Greg Pincus). She wrote a Fib in the comments of my previous ballet post about the dress rehearsal, so I tried one for the recital. Fun!

Dress Rehearsal

Pink slippered feet
and sky dresses
twirling,
playing,
laughing a dance.

Sabbath Haiku

Butterfly Sabbath
Open and clear chrysalis
Wings beat, rest, and fly

There has been all manner of excitement this Sunday. The children and I decided to take our sabbath at home. Our first chrysalis opened to reveal "a beautiful butterfly." We are still waiting for her to fly away. My daughter and I both let her crawl on our fingers, hands, and arms with her prickly feet. I transferred her to a butterfly bush in our little, backyard garden. The rain has died down.

The children both did their own blog posts about Matilda (who used to be Buddy) here and here. My daughter wrote her a poem and read it to her. . . hoping she would fly off.

I hope she will be happy for her brief life out in the world. She is resting in the wind and air now. I hope she is able to feel the sun, drink from flowers, walk across leaves, find another butterfly friend, and lay her eggs.

Two and One

Two girls.

Two friends.
Two butterfly dresses.
Two pairs of white shoes
on two pairs of feet.
Two hands.

Two leaves,
but
only
one
tulip
flower.

Note: I took these photos this morning after church. The flowers were in my friend's yard, and she thinks they are from a sycamore tree. Are they flowers? Are they fruit? Please correct me if I am wrong. In any case, they are beautiful-- especially against the turquoise dress.

From 4/21/09-- My friend Jennifer discovered that this is not a sycamore tree. It is a yellow poplar or tulip tree. Thank you so much!

Among the Trees

When I am Among the Trees

by Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, "Stay awhile."
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, "It's simple," they say,
"and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine."

From Thirst. Poems by Mary Oliver published by Beacon Press, Boston, 2006.

This is one of my favorite poems-- ever. I have a lot of favorite poems by Mary Oliver. Her words and images resonate with my experiences and crystallize them in beautiful, prayerful ways. I love poetry as much as I love trees and leaves. April is National Poetry Month, so I indulge in poetry's words a little more than usual.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

In honor of Dr. Seuss's recent birthday. . .

Pollen, pollen everywhere!
In my house and in my hair,
on my car and on my cat,
who doesn't like it,
scat, scat, scat!

On the flowers, on the trees,
where, oh where, are all the bees?
To gather it up and take it away,
so I can go outside to play.

Making yellow every fellow,
Sneezing, wheezing,
itching, twitching,
over here and over there,
pollen, pollen everywhere!

Follow the yellow brick road,
Oh, follow the yellow brick road. . .

On Fire

Rising above,
the sunlight found me

and set me on fire

so that I could glow
and dance
even in the shadows.