Exploring Fibonacci patterns

December 17, 2012 · 4 Comments · Finding Out, Maths

Sunflower in our school herb garden.

Mrs S found some great picture books to share with us last week. We have just finished a science unit all about plants. Mrs S first shared the book called Growing Patterns by Sarah Campbell. It has some fabulous photographs of flowers and it introduced us to a very special set of numbers.

The next day she read us the book called Blockhead by Joseph D’Agnese. It told us about the life of Leonardo of Pisa and his fascination for numbers. In the book we found out about Roman Numerals and also our Hindu-Arabic numerals and a very special number pattern that is now known as the Fibonacci Sequence.

Did you know that Leonardo of Pisa was one of the mathematicians responsible for our ancestors changing from the Roman Numeral number system to the Hindu-Arabic number system?

We explored the first 25 Fibonacci numbers and found some very interesting facts. Did you know that the fifth Fibonacci number is five? The 12th Fibonacci number is 144 which can be made by multiplying 12 by 12. There is also a great pattern of odd and even numbers. Do you know what it might be?

Here some very interesting Youtube videos that share things about the Fibonacci Sequence.

Please leave a comment on this post to tell us something interesting that you know about these very special numbers.

Tags: Fibonnaci·Maths·pattern

4 Comments so far ↓

Mrs S // Dec 20, 2012 at 6:46 PM

Hi to my class who may drop in during the school holidays. Here is a great book trailer about Blockhead that you may like to watch.

Mrs S

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Mrs S // Dec 20, 2012 at 6:38 PM

Hi Cooper and Ayla

We received this answer to your questions via our gmail account. I found it in my mail just after school finished. Hopefully you will see this during our school holidays.

Mrs S

Dear Cooper & Ayla:

I learned about Fibonacci by doing research and thought he was very interesting. To write my book, I needed three things:

- Real history: All we know about Fibonacci’s is what he wrote about himself in one tiny paragraph. (I challenge you to find that paragraph online!) In it, he tells us that his father sent him to Algeria to work as a merchant and there he learned lots of math and traveled the world at the time.

- Real math: The story of how he helped spread the word of Hindu-Arabic numerals is very well known, because what he did changed Europe forever.

- Imagination: Even when we don’t know the details about something, we can imagine what maybe happened. The real Fibonacci probably never knew the importance of the Fibonacci Sequence but I need my character in the book to know about them so he could share them with readers.

Did I answer all your questions? Let me know!
Have a great day!

your pal,
Joe

Reply
Cooper and Ayla // Dec 19, 2012 at 11:25 AM

Hi Mr.Agnese

Thank you for leaving a comment. What inspired you to look at Fibonacci numbers and to write a book about his life?How did you learn so much about him even if it said in the book that you dont know much.
Kind regards Coooper and Ayla

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Joseph D'Agnese // Dec 18, 2012 at 5:34 AM

I was so happy to hear that you are reading my book in your class. I hope you enjoyed it. Learning about Fibonacci is a fun way to do math!
My best to all of you,

Joseph D’Agnese
author, Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci

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