Archive for the ‘Fibonacci’ Category

My friend, Hester Bass, alerted me to the fact that Growing Patterns appeared last night on the pilot of a new Fox TV show called Touch. Fibonacci Numbers figure into the plot of the show, and, at one point, the character played by Danny Glover uses our book as he explains the sequence to the Kiefer Sutherland character.

In this trailer on YouTube, a few pages of Growing Patterns appear at about 1:20.

I’m glad Hester caught the reference and I’m now planning to tune in on March 19th.

My second school-based project this month involves teaching third graders to use digital photography to illustrate math stories. I began by reading Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature in each class, and then I talked about my process — from idea to publication. I showed them early (and awful) drafts, described my breakthrough on layout, my complete re-write, and the photography.

As noted in my previous post, I am working with Beth West, IB Coordinator at Davis Magnet School, to develop a lesson plan for a presentation we are giving at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference in Philadelphia in April. Two books that have helped us a lot was we’ve developed our unit are Math is Language Too: Talking and Writing in the Mathematics Classroom and New Visions for Linking Literature and Mathematics by David J. Whitin and Phyllis Whitin.

The Davis third graders will work in groups to make photo-illustrated books about patterns or measurement. Our primary model texts are: Growing Patterns and For Good Measure by Ken Robbins.

We will ask our students to write regularly in their math journals about the project. Beth and I are very interested in seeing how the students make sense of the pattern and measurement concepts and the book-making process. I will write regular updates here to let you know how the process is going.

The Fibonacci Folding Book Project app is now available in Google’s Android Market. The app in Apple’s App Store has been downloaded by people in a handful of countries. It is very exciting to have our content available for tablets. I’d love to hear from app users about the experience.

Richard has put buttons on the homepage of my website that link directly to the appropriate page in the two App outlets. Click here to see.

Our iPad app version of the Fibonacci Folding Book tutorial is now available on iTunes. The best way to find it is to search for “Fibonacci Folding Book”. This is Richard’s first app and I think he did a tremendous job. If you have an iPad, please download it and tell us what you think. The app is free.

Created for teachers of all kinds, including homeschoolers, the app provides step-by-step instructions on creating Fibonacci Folding Books with your students.This multidisciplinary unit includes photography, bookmaking, writing poetry, number patterns, illustration, and measurement.

My friend, Julie Owen, and I have taught this unit with third, fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. We also taught a professional development workshop for teachers this summer. Read more about the project at St. Therese Catholic School here and the Whole Schools Summer Institute here.

Now, for the teachers from the other side of the room… Julie took these with her camera and I downloaded them from her flickr album. I trimmed a little here and there so you can see the books. Once again, I tip my hat to the creativity of these teachers.

I’ve been posting for several days about my teaching experience at the Mississippi Whole Schools Institute. Here are some more examples of Fibonacci Folding Books made by teachers in the workshop I team taught with Julie Owen. Aren’t they amazing?

I taught this week at the Mississippi Whole Schools Summer Institute. Julie Owen and I teamed up to teach the Fibonacci Folding Book Project. I taught three other afternoon sessions and Julie taught her fabulous “Knit it, Solve it,” for the first time. You can see photos of our work on Julie’s flickr album here or here on my blog.

My friend Stephenie turned me on to Zentangles. I saw the potential for combining the Fibonacci grid that I use in Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers and Nature and zentangling. I just need to add the spiral.

Richard and the boys are giving me no end of ribbing about the fact that I spend time on the internet researching new “tangles,” which look to them like plain doodling. The final straw was my insistence that I had “messed up” and went to get the white out.

I hope you’ll forgive my absence. The downside of going away can be getting behind on the home front and, sometimes, getting sick. Douglas and I had a hard time getting back from Seattle (no thanks to weather and Delta’s trouble dealing with the logistics of weather). Then, I came down with a bug. I’m back, and I hope to catch up on all the things I’ve been doing — including WRITING!!

Here I am with Keith Baker, the author and illustrator of LMNO Peas, at the 2011 Best Books for Kids Award Party in Seattle. Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature was nominated in the nonfiction category.

The 2011 Best Books for Kids were: We Are in a Book! by Mo Willems (Read Aloud), How to Clean a Hippopotamus by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page (nonfiction), Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave by Laban Carrick Hill (Multicultural), and The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester by Barbara O’Conner. You can see a list of all nominees here. I enjoyed spending a few hours with people who love books and are committed to getting good books into the hands of all children. I hope to be back in Seattle one day and Page Ahead will be on my list of places to visit.

 

 

Today I leave for Seattle to attend the Page Ahead Best Books for Kids Award Ceremony. Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature is a finalist in the nonfiction category. I’ll be visiting with some friends I’ve known since the day I started kindergarten in Evanston, IL. It’ll be a quick trip, but my son, Douglas, is coming along and we are going to pack as much in as we can.