What are spirals?

Spirals are shapes that twist and turn, getting bigger or smaller as they go.

Imagine you're drawing a line on paper, but instead of going straight, you keep turning your pencil in the same direction, like when you’re writing a letter s over and over again, but making it longer each time. That’s a spiral!

A good example of a spiral is the shell of a snail. If you look closely, each part of the shell goes around in a circle, but each circle is a little bigger than the one before. It’s like the snail built its house by adding more and more circles around itself, kind of like building a staircase that keeps going up.

Another way to think about spirals is like climbing stairs that twist around, a spiral staircase! Every time you go up one step, the whole staircase turns a little bit. That’s how a spiral works: it goes around and around while also getting bigger or smaller.

Spirals are all around us, on leaves, in galaxies, even on your favorite candy canes!