Fibonacci's Sequence: The Wonderful Asynchrony of Young Gifted Learners

As Seabury Head of School Sandi Wollum says, "You never know what age they are when you're talking with them." 

Here is a peek into the first grade classroom as they discover the Fibonacci Sequence.

What "age" are they in each picture? 

Listening to the ocean in a shell

Figuring out the Fibonacci Sequence

Taking it to very high numbers

(Also taking the clipboard outside to recess!)

"Hey, we both have astronomy t-shirts on today!

Can you see the flag of my Lego astronaut on the moon of yours?"

Such is life in a classroom of highly-capable first graders with curriculum designed specifically for them. 

Interested in finding out more? Click here for some parental tips 

from NAGC - National Association for Gifted Children.

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Here are some more snapshots of what our Fibonacci day was like.

Much like the discoverer of the Fibonacci Sequence, 

the Navigators are keen observers. 

We love making connections. 

We begin to see something in common. 

We look at other things from nature 

and notice that "they all have a spiral!"

We then read a biography about a man named Leonardo Fibonacci. 

He lived during the Middle Ages

(hey, we know what that means!) 

and he also noticed the spiral pattern in nature.

And he noticed this number pattern: 

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13...

We  set off to figure out the code.

This student uses the analogy of the famous rabbit 

problem found in our book, 

but also found in 1202 in Fibonacci's book Liber Abaci. 

Collaborating to figure it out. 

Some students discover it by looking at the numbers. 

Once we know the code, we proceed to take it further and further. 

As the number get bigger, it requires a lot of mental math.

And a quick lesson on using semi-colons. 

Using graph paper, we make our own spirals with the pattern 1,1,2,3,5...

Again, we love to go big, bigger, biggest!

This was inquiry-based instruction at its finest - the students asked the questions, did the observations, and discovered for themselves what Leonardo Fibonacci discovered about 850 years ago.

He could have been a Seabury Student!

Have you figured it out?

Scroll down for answer.