Fawn Nguyen Fawn Nguyen

One Rod Tall

I’ve written before about reading books to my kids and following up with an activity. I read the poem One Inch Tall to my 6th graders as we’re studying ratios and proportions.

One Inch Tall

by Shel Silverstein

If you were only one inch tall, you’d ride a worm to school.

The teardrop of a crying ant would be your swimming pool.

A crumb of cake would be a feast

And last you seven days at least,

A flea would be a frightening beast

If you were one inch tall.

If you were only one inch tall, you’d walk beneath the door,

And it would take about a month to get down to the store.

A bit of fluff would be your bed,

You’d swing upon a spider’s thread,

And wear a thimble on your head

If you were one inch tall.

You’d surf across the kitchen sink upon a stick of gum.

You couldn’t hug your mama, you’d just have to hug her thumb.

You’d run from people’s feet in fright,

To move a pen would take all night,

(This poem took fourteen years to write—

‘Cause I’m just one inch tall).

Then I asked them to write their own poem in similar fashion (structure and style) using a unit length of their choice other than “inch.”

We agreed on the following guidelines:

  • minimum 18 lines, however many stanzas, no more than one page

  • rhyming is fun and recommended, but not necessary

  • typed up, size 12 font, no funky-impossible-to-read-annoying font

  • must be illustrated by hand, stick figures are okay as teacher can’t draw either

  • poem title and heading on paper

  • objects in the poem must be reasonably proportional

[Original post had more student samples, I’m just sharing one here.]

One Foot Tall

by Caden

If you were one foot tall, you would only be two pencils long

You would be barely taller than a math book

You could ride a big shade hat down a brook

You could sleep in a school backpack

You wouldn’t be able to reach the door handle

If you were one foot tall

If you were one foot tall, a roof would be a cliff

An iMac would be a flat screen TV

A sturdy folder would be a surfboard when riding in ferocious winds

A bathtub would be a hot tub to rest in

A Dalmatian dog would be a horse you could ride away on

If you were one foot tall

If you were one foot tall, a dog’s bed would be a perfect size

A desk chair would be a lounge chair to sit and rest in

The shrubs in the backyard would be a small jungle

A grape would be a plum

A kitchen sink would be a nice bathtub

If you were one foot tall

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Speaking of reading and books and math, hot off the press is Nico Rowinsky‘s new ebook, Sally Strange. Nico clearly has a good pulse on middle school kids — he writes with heart and lightness and allows the mathematics to weave ever so gently through the pages. His Sally Strange is an all-too-familiar 7th grader in our classroom. Get it for yourself, for a friend, for a young friend, for your school library (when the hard copy comes out).

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