Friday, October 18, 2013

The Greedy Triangle

 No geometry lesson is complete without the book "The Greedy Triangle."

It is one of my favorite math lessons. I don't own this book but I was able to find it online. If you can't access you tube at your school (like me) then you can find it on gaggle tube. Just type it in the search engine.
 
After we listened to the story, each student chose a triangle that I had cut out in all different shapes and sizes. We brainstormed where we see triangles in the world around us and each student shared what they were going to turn their triangle into. This was a very important step. My rule was that you had to make something different from everyone else.  In previous years I haven't done this and everyone made the same thing...you guessed it, the roof of a house. I love what some of them came up with all on their own!
 







 
And much much more. They were so proud of how they used their imaginations to manipulate and create their triangle into an object.
 
Another great activity I did with shapes this week is this poem to go in their poetry journals. It is titled "What Creature is This" and it's all about a jack o lantern made out of shapes! I passed out some shapes and they created the creature in the poem.

 
Do you read "The Greedy Triangle?" I would love to hear what you do with this story!
 

 
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