Shape Trilogy Shape Characters

We are knee deep into a unit on shapes. I love teaching about shapes because there is SO much that you can do with them. A few years back, I shared some of my students favorite shape books. You can find that list here. Since then, I have discovered a few more books, and the shape trilogy, by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen, has quickly become a huge favorite of my first graders. The first 2 books, Triangle and Square, are currently available and Circle will be out in March. I have already ordered my copy and can’t wait until it comes.

After reading Triangle and Square, my students really wanted to make their own shape characters like those in the books. So I came up with the following idea:

Shape Trilogy Shape Characters

Materials

black and white construction paper

glue

pencils

scissors

template

Directions

Students choose a favorite shape. I let them choose any shape they liked as long as 1) they knew its name and 2) they could make it on paper. I thought about using stencils, but decided not to because I wanted to see what they came up with on their own. I was very pleasantly surprised!

After choosing the shape they wanted, students sketched it out with a white pencil on black paper. After I was sure the sketch was not too small and was a recognizable shape, students cut them out and added eyes and legs.

I decided that just creating the shape characters was not enough and we had to make it a little more “mathy.’ So I printed up some speech bubbles and had the kids record the name of the shape, how many corners it has and how many sides it has. They then cut out the bubbles and attached them to their shape characters.

This was a super easy and super fun activity that the kids just loved and, maybe they learned a little something in the process too!

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