UKS2 Topic: Dinosaurs and Fossils Block J: Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution Session 4
Writing a Fibonacci poem
Fibonacci was an Italian mathematician who lived 800 years ago. He introduced Arabic numerals to
Europe, which he noticed were much easier to do arithmetic with than Roman numerals.
Try this sum in Roman numerals
VI + VII = ?
Now try it in Arabic numerals
6+7=?
Fibonacci also introduced a sequence of numbers that Indian and Arabic mathematicians had noticed in
nature. Each number in the sequence is the sum of the two previous numbers. It starts at 1.
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, ….....
Can you work out the next three numbers in the sequence?
A Fibonacci poem
Using this sequence of numbers, you can write poems. The first two lines should be one word each, the
next two, the next three and so on. For example:
Extinct
Gone
Wiped out
So many creatures
Evolved into some other creature
Step by step, missing link by missing link.
Write your own Fibonacci poem using two or three words from this word bank.
Missing link
Extinct
Extinction
Fossil
Animal
Whale
Bird
Human
Fish
Amphibian
Advanced Fibonacci poem
Try writing a poem using the Fibonacci sequence but counting the number of syllables rather than
words. For example:
Whales
Birds
Humans
All creatures
Signs of those gone by
Left in our bones, evolution.
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