Fibonacci’s Numbers

We brought in a guest teaching artist to do this Fibonacci’s Numbers project. Her name is Julie Campbell, and she is the author of a book called Growing Patterns. This art project was done with fourth graders, but you can implement it with art classes between grades 3 and 8.

Project Materials

This project doesn’t take very many materials:

• a piece of paper 22 inches long by 5 inches tall

• ruler

• pencil

• scissors

Instructions

Step 1: With paper lying horizontally, measure from the left edge of the paper and mark a dot at the top and bottom of the paper at 1 inch from the left edge.

Step 2: Connect these dots with a straight line by aligning your ruler perpendicular to the paper.

Step 3: Fold the paper on the folding line you just drew

Step 4: You will repeat steps 1-3 for each page in the book. The only thing that will be different is the measurement. With the rest of the pages, be sure to measure, mark, and draw your folding line from the inside of the first folding line as in the photo to the right.

See instructions with pictures here.

Personal Reflection

If I had to do this again with students, I'd put a lot more effort into adding color to the images of the books. I felt our colored pencils were unremarkable and dull. I might use markers or construction paper crayons on colored paper next time. I just wish the colors had been bolder.

Also, folding paper is HARD for students. This is just one of those skills getting lost now. They need to practice random folding before we do the intentional folding that has to meet specifications.