The Shape Trilogy Activities

📝 This post, The Shape Trilogy, was originally published in 2014 and has been updated with new information and resources.

We are knee-deep in our shapes units in first grade. Teaching shapes is so much fun because geometry connects naturally with art, creativity, and writing activities.

We begin the unit with the basic 2D shapes – triangle, square, rectangle, and circle. Very basic and very appropriate for first graders. We learn about the attributes of each shape, and we compare shapes by size, shape, and color. Later in the year, we revisit shapes, but this is what we do on the first go-round.

That said, these books are perfect for our shape unit. Not only do they reinforce the shapes and their names, but they also give each shape a personality, which leads right into this art and writing activity I am sharing today.

About The Shape Trilogy

The Shapes Trilogy, created by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen, is a series of three simple children’s books (Triangle, Square, and Circle) that tell the story of the three mischievous geometric friends. The stories are silly, fun, and very engaging.

These three books address friendship, perfection, rules, and facing fears

Why Kids Love The Shape Trilogy

These stories are treasured by my students. They always want to borrow them from my teacher library. I often find them laid out in front of a student as I listen to them recreate the stories or make up their own versions. And there have been a few arguments about whose turn with the books is next, but that is par for the course with great books!!

What Students Explore While Reading The Shape Trilogy

✔️ names and attributes of 2D shapes
✔️ differences between shapes
✔️ friendship skills
✔️ problem-solving
✔️ creative thinking

Creating the Shapes

Materials needed

✔️black and white construction paper
✔️ glue
✔️ white pencils
✔️regular pencil
✔️ scissors
✔️templates

Creating the Shape Character

✏️ Students choose a shape to make. I allow them to make any shape as long as they know the name, how many sides/angles it has, and they can make it out of construction paper.
✏️ Students sketch the shape with a white pencil on the black paper. I emphasized that the shape should not be too small, or it will be hard to work with.
✏️ Students then cut the shape out and used the black paper to add legs to their shape.
✏️ They then used the white construction paper to make the eyes. I encouraged students to make their eyes like the ones in the book, but didn’t make it a requirement.
✏️ Students put all the pieces of their shape together, and then we moved on.

The Shape Trilogy Book creating a shape of our own.

The Shape Trilogy Book creating a shape of our own adding the legs

Adding in the Math

I wanted to add some math to this activity. It was fun for sure, but I wanted to take it a step further, so I created these speech bubbles for students to record the attributes of the shapes they created.

✏️ Download and print the free templates.
✏️ Give each child a template and have them record the shape’s name and number of sides and corners (angles).
✏️ Students then cut out the speech bubble and attach it to their shape to make it look like the shape is talking.

These shapes came out really well. Students loved making them, and a few students even made more than one! After we shared our shapes with each other, I hung them on the bulletin board outside the classroom for all to see.

This was a super easy and fun activity that the kids enjoyed while learning quite a bit along the way too!