This week I wanted to feature a wonderful picture book about the life of Fibonacci, the mathematician.
Fibonacci lived in the 1100’s in medieval Italy and learned about math on his travels on behalf of his father’s business to far away places like northern Africa, Turkey, Syria, Greece, and Sicily. Fibonacci will even take you into the court of Frederick II, of the Holy Roman Empire. It is a wonderful way to tie the development of mathematics with other history your child is learning!
This book takes your child on a rollicking adventure through Fibonacci’s life and travels. You can use this to reinforce geography lessons as well as teach your child a bit of math history.
Fibonacci will walk you through his most famous thought experiment with rabbits that led to the famous Fibonacci series that describes… do you know this one? Well it is the math of spirals!
And where do you find these spirals in nature? Well, for that you have to read the book!
There is even a ‘Can You Find’ activity at the back of the book that allows your child to use the math and ideas he has learned and hunt through the pictures for more clues.
You could even expand on the story to add some art activities, as this homeschooling family did.
Most of all, your child will have fun – and isn’t that what learning is all about?
Book Stats
Title: Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci
Author: Joseph D’Agnese
Length: 40 pages
Year written: 2010
Lexile: 570L
Target Age: Children ages 6 and up and their mothers and fathers.
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8 Responses
This looks like a fun biography about an interesting character.
Yes, it is. Thanks!
My oldest daughter loves Fibonacci! 🙂
That is wonderful! Has she seen any of the videos done by Vi Hart? Vi is an amazing young woman/mathematician who started making videos while she was getting her degree at MIT. The videos make really complex math ideas really accessible and memorable for anyone. My daughter absolutely loves them!
That looks cool! I love to include this kind of thing in our math from time to time. I think I’ll have to put this on our list. Thanks for the recommendation.
You are very welcome! My kids really like to ‘mix it up a bit’ once in a while and add something that is not a textbook to our math lessons.
This looks like a fun book. I like that the book has an activity that allows children to use the math skills they’ve just learned!
Yes, the part I like the most is that kids of all ages can get something out of it.