Emma Whiteknact Elementary School kicked off last Friday, Feb. 15, a Math Poetry Project with the "Tandem Tellers" storytellers.

Students were entertained with stories, songs, and poems by Anne-Marie Forer and Cindy Killavey, the "Tandem Tellers."

The storytellers focused on math concepts in their stories and the children sang a math song. This week, students will be given poetry journals and Killavey, a folk artist, will work with each classroom to inspire students to write their math poems.

The goal is to publish an all-school math poetry book to share with the students and their families. The project is funded by a $595 Rhode Island State Council on the Arts grant.

The RISCA grant complements a $3,000 Crayola Creatively Alive Children grant the school received for an upcoming Math Art exhibit, the spring publication of the Math in the World poetry book, and a Math Journey Around the World at the Arts Diversity Night at the end of the year. 

These activities are designed to inspire student enthusiasm for math as a multi-colored window to the world. Creative exercises will bring context to classroom math concepts and will fire both sides of the brain through math and poetry. The RISCA grant panel called Whiteknact's proposal "an original idea, combining math and poetry."

Killavey is an award-winning storyteller who works with children through music, song, and the performance arts.