April Is Math Poetry Month

 

I just discovered that April is Math Poetry Month in addition to being National Poetry Month and Math and Statistics Awareness Week.  The poetry used in class could be either sharing mathematically based poems or having students write their own poetry.

Although it is about half way through April, you still have time to engage in exposing your math students to poetry.  Let's start with some sites that have poetry you can share with your classes. 

One is through the Mathematics Association of America with a lovely page of poetry. Part of the page has poems with a mathematical theme such as Geometry by Rita Dove or types of mathematical poems based on structure with examples.  They discuss the visual poem, the concrete triangular poem, square poems, haiku, and other variations of syllable poems.

The acorn naturalists have a lovely page that discusses the idea that by knowing the mathematical structure of a poem, it should make writing poetry so much easier. They talk about how many of the poems with the rhythmic sing song sound is due to the math of the number of lines and number of syllables in each line.  Then there are the constraints or rules for certain types of poems such as Haiku where you are limited by the 17 syllable frame.

This National Geographic blog has a lovely discussion on how math and poetry intersect written especially for teachers. They provide discussion ideas such as comparing poetic structure with mathematical formulas, types of mathematical poems with examples, and even links.  Everything you need for a lesson on the subject.

If you do a quick search for math poetry, you'll find lots of sites and suggested youtube videos to help you do this in class.  This can show how similar math and poetry are.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.