Waldorf Sixth Grade Geometry

A lot has happened in sixth grade since my last update. Here are the highlights:

• We finished our block on Ancient Rome. The block culminated in an evening of Roman rhetoric and feasting. The students prepared speeches about the ancient Roman topics they studied, we invited families and siblings, everyone brought a dish to share and we ate by candlelight together. It was truly a magical evening and the students did a fantastic job!
• Our school has a practice of having the middle school teachers swap a block once in the year. My colleague taught the sixth graders Business Math, while I led a block on North American Geography in the fifth grade. Their Business Math block ended with a Holiday Bazaar. Each student created a product and calculated expenses, profit margins, etc. It was a great exercise and the students made quite a bit of money to go towards their 8th grade trip.

Those two blocks took us through to Christmas Break and now we are back in the new year and studying geometry.

I went back through the blog to take a look at some of my old sixth grade geometry posts. Those posts are some of my most popular of all time, probably mostly due to Pinterest. I realized that the last time I taught sixth grade geometry it was in January, and it really did feel like a good time for the block. There is something very inward about geometry — every individual is alone with his or her drawing. (Check out those old posts by following the links below.)

• Waldorf Sixth Grade Geometry Sample drawings
• Waldorf Sixth Grade Geometry Main Lesson Pages
• Waldorf Sixth Grade Geometry Chalkboard Drawing

This time around I’m realizing even more strongly how perfect this block is at this time. Our middle school math program happens to be in a geometry unit, which is very different than the geometry that I am doing with the students in main lesson, but the two are dovetailing very nicely.

In main lesson the students are learning to create various constructions using the compass, straightedge and pencil, while in their math classes, they are doing calculations about those forms. Last week in main lesson we did an exercise to discover that a circle yields the largest area (given an equal perimeter/circumference) and then in math class the students did calculations to prove the truth of that observation. Just perfect!

I also spent some time during the holiday break to find just the right compass to give my students. You can find my favorite on Amazon by following the link below.

Staedtler Precision 6 Inch Student Comfort Compass (556WP00)

There are lots of other interesting new things going on in our classroom. I hope to blog about them soon!