Sixth Grade Geometry -- The Circle

Today was our first day back at school after Christmas Break. I always have a little bit of nervous, excited energy when we come back to school after a break, and I certainly did this time. Last night I could hardly sleep and I tossed and turned thinking about seeing my students again and starting our new block.I think my nervousness was doubled because I just love this 6th Grade Geometry block so much. When I told the class today that we were going to be doing lots of drawing with our new compasses there were squeals of delight throughout the room. We just love our compasses. I know that when they learn the geometric constructions they'll be able to do with these tools they'll love them even more.Today we did our first geometric construction -- concentric circles.The Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe begins with the circle as a representation of the number one -- unity. We were able to see this most clearly today as we recognized that the circle has just one point in the center. We saw that while other shapes have three or four corners sticking out, the circle is a unit unto itself. We also saw that in the circle beginning and end become one. I could see that the students really recognized the circle as one perfect form.Tomorrow we'll work on some terms related to the circle. This evening I worked on my main lesson page that presents this information.One of the things I love most about this block is the opportunity it presents for artistic work. I expect we'll do some pretty beautiful main lesson book pages. I'll try to post pictures as much as possible.