Grade 6 - Geometry - Week 1

Oh what a fun block this is! I could not squeeze it in 3 weeks, so decided to make it a 4 week block. We are working with great resources and are enjoying the blend of history, art and maths. Waldorf introduces geomety early on with form drawing (freehand geometry). Actually, in all Waldorf schools, the first day of first grade is about lines and curves. We go outside and try to find lines and curves in things we see... leaves, buildings, flowers, etc. It is truly a magical moment when the child realizes that everything is made of lines and curves! I still remember this very special day! And the second one! Through the grade, they's continued with running forms, symmetrical forms and Celtic knots. Sixth grade is really the introduction to formal geometry.

Steiner stressed the importance of teaching children how to use their imagination to see the form, or geometric shapes, not just the numbers and equations that many public schools focus on today.

I start each lesson by reading one or two chapters of the very interesting book on The Story of Geometry, which contains stories about geometers from ancient civilizations, some of whose only used strings, shadows and straightedges to lay the foundation of modern geometry. For instance, we studied Egypt and Mesopotamia last year and they learned how the rich land in the Fertile Crescent allowed people to begin agriculture, domesticating animals, and building cities. These things gave them more time for thinking, henceforth came some of the first geometric thought. The first calendars were believed to have 360 days, which lead to the circle being divided into 360 degrees. Finally, students look at, and work with, the division of circles into 360 degrees. Sixth grade geometry flows logically from this historical foundation as it builds and expands on these concepts.

I highly recommend that every homeschooling parent planning a homeschooling block on geometry watches this great talk by Jamie York, the author of Making Math Meaningful.

Other than these two books, I also used this Compass drawing book and the Key to Geometry workbooks 1 and 2.

So this week, we started with some basic geometrical constructions: line and angle bisection, right angles, parallel lines, the construction of triangles and quadrilaterals using a compass, copying an angle; construction of a parallel line and division of a line into equal parts.

Make sure to plan a lot of time for these main lessons (2 hours at least).

Day 1: I read p. 7 to 20 in String, Straight-edge and shadows, I gave each of the girls a geometric instrument kits and they played with them a bit (I showed them how each worked). We did about 10 pages in the Key to Geometry workbook 1, then did card 3 to 6 in Compass Drawing and finally draw this concentric circles (one inch appart) in their Main Lesson Book (make sure to buy a bigger MLB for this block with onion skins).

Day 2: I read chap. 3 and 4 in String, Straight-edge and shadows, We did  about 10 pages in the Key to Geometry workbook 1, we did the 3 exercises on p. 32 in Making Math Meaningful, then did cards 8-9-11 and 15 in Compass Drawing and finally reproduced and colored card 15 into our MLB .

Day 3:  I read chap. 5 in String, Straight-edge and shadows, We did  about 10 pages in the Key to Geometry workbook 1, we did the 3 exercises on p. 33 in Making Math Meaningful, then did cards 16-17 and 18 in Compass Drawing and finally reproduced and colored card 18 into our MLB .

Day 4:  I read chap. 6 and 7 in String, Straight-edge and shadows, We did about 10 pages in the Key to Geometry workbook 1, we did the 3 exercises on p. 34 in Making Math Meaningful, then did card 19 in Compass Drawing and reproduced and colored that card into our MLB .

And this is just the first week!!