Student Gift + Word Play = Math Poems

I was gifted this magnetic poetry kit by one of my students. He knows that I enjoy math and writing poetry. I was intrigued by the words that would be inside and how they would fit into poems.

The little box sat on my shelf for a few months. Then today while I was cleaning, I came across it again. I knew I didn’t have an idea for my next Slice so now this was going to be it. I sat down, separated all the word tiles, and pulled out words that stood out to me. After collecting a small pile of words, I began arranging them into poems.

Here are my two creations:

Using the given words in the box made me think differently when creating a poem. I couldn’t just say what I wanted to say. I was limited by the choices before me. It was a bit more challenging than I expected but it added a bit of playfulness that I enjoyed as well.

I will not let this little box sit untouched on a shelf for months at a time again. It poses a cerebral challenge that I would like to engage in more often.