HAPPY PI DAY

   Today is March 14, which makes it Pi Day 3.14.  It is also a day for writing poems about math, for baking pies and eating them.  Yum!

I HATE MATH

Math and me,
I don't do great.
It takes too long.
I'm always late.

My mom says things
I don't get her.
"Practice, Son
and you'll get better."

Not knowing math
does terrorize.
There are facts
I should memorize.


   How do you memorize things?  I know for me, the best place to memorize is in the bathroom.  When I was in fourth grade and needed to memorize, my teacher sent me out to the playground.  Somehow the rhythm of the swing helped set up a rhythm in my brain to be receptive to the things I needed to remember.  I frequently start at the end and memorize back from there.
   Do you have timed math tests and quizzes?  In third grade on Fridays, we'd have timed tests.  As soon as we were done, we were to put our tests on the teacher's desk and we could go out to play.  I was not good at this.  So as I frequently do, I redefined the rules.  I decided to write as neatly as I could.  I decided to check my work and show the proof.  Of course, I was the last to finish--but I did have every problem correct and had the neatest paper.  Do you ever "re-define" the rules?  What do you do?
   In the long run, this strategy didn't pay off because everyone thought I was bad in math.  If I'd just put in a little more effort, I could have been awesome.
   In fifth grade, there was a student Bruce Marcuson who memorized all the state capitols.  When we'd play a geography game, he'd always win.  Now that I know how to memorize, to remember 50 facts is easy.  If I'd only known that when I was young. 
   What can you do to exercise your memory skills today?  Is there a poem you want to learn?

   Your poetry challenge for today is to write a poem about your favorite kind of pie.  Have fun writing and memorizing.  Can you draw a pie to illustrate your poem?

  Here is another hibiscus I drew last week.  The hibiscus is Hawaii's State Flower.

Live now so you'll have great memories.

RIDING THE BUS

I got on the bus
and what I saw 
was quite curious.
There was a man, 
most studious,
working on an abacus.
Another man 
read Leviticus
while a frivolous woman
was hacking, 
her poor esophagus.
I saw a small boy
with a marvelous toy blunderbuss
next to him was a kid carrying
a jar with a phosphorous octopus.
You probably think this is ludicrous,
but I thought it was most marvelous.
Riding the bus
can be quite hilarious.

     I'm going crazy and having fun writing poetry.  Have you ever tried to do one of those math problems that say how many people got on and how many got off a bus at each stop? 

A bus with 10 riders is going down Main Street.
The bus stops at Green Street and two people get off and three get on.
The bus stops at Market Street and five people get off and six get on.
How many people are on the bus?

Then at the end you're supposed to be able to figure out how many people are still on the bus?  Sometimes it is a trick question because you forgot to count the bus driver, so your answer is off by one person.

That was what I was thinking about while I was writing this poem.  Have you ridden a bus?  Were there different kinds of people on your bus?  I couldn't think what to write a poem about today, so I opened my rhyming dictionary randomly and was on the "us" page with lots of delicious possibilities.  Do you want to try?  Find a rhyming dictionary and open it to any page and see what words jump out and just beg to be in your poem.  Listen to them and have fun writing. 

I will think happy thoughts today, making my own good day and a good day for others.

National Pi Day

Happy National Pi Day
a me-oh-my day,
full of numbers day,
a most mathematical day.
Oh, what do you say?
Give a cheer.
Hip-hip-hooray
for National Pi Day.