This Polygons with Personality resource is on my list of favorite geometry craft ideas! It ended up being one of those lessons that I’d be giddy about doing every year. It’s the perfect blend of academics and craftiness. It rolled math vocabulary and concepts, character traits, writing skills, and cutting and pasting all into one. Learn all about these integrated geometry activities below!
What is Polygons with Personality?
Polygons with Personality is a geometry craft that is part of my 2D Geometry Bundle, which includes 100+ pages of games, activities, writing projects, visual aids, and more to help you teach your students about two-dimensional geometry. The Polygons with Personality resource includes character traits activities, graphic organizer templates for planning the story, differentiated final copy templates, and 8 polygon printables for students to transform into characters.
Why Teachers Love Polygons with Personality
Some of the reasons teachers love this geometry craft are listed below.
- This geometry resource helps you create a highly engaging hands-on learning experience for your students.
- This resource helps you facilitate an integrated math and literacy learning experience.
- It is aligned to the Common Core standards, so you can be confident that these are important concepts and skills for your grade level.
- It’s quick and easy to prep, which will save you lots of time as a teacher.
- The final products create a beautiful, colorful bulletin board wall display that students, colleagues, and administrators will admire.
How to Implement this Geometry Resource
Below are the steps for how to implement this geometry resource including the writing activity, reading lesson, and craft.
1. Download the Polygons with Personality Resource
Download the Polygons with Personality geometry craft and literacy project resource from my Clutter-Free Classroom Teachers Pay Teachers store.
2. Print and Prep the Resource
Select which pages you would like to use with your students and make copies as needed. I printed the polygon printables onto plain paper and used the photocopier to make 3 of each in an assortment of colors using construction paper.
3. Get the Book, The Greedy Triangle
The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns is one of my favorite math picture books! Check your classroom library, school library, or public library for a copy. You may also be able to find a video of it being read aloud online. If you would like to buy a copy, check out your local used book store or Amazon.
4. Introduce Character Traits
I began by reviewing what character traits are. We discussed how they are based on what someone says or does and not on appearance.
I revealed a chart that included columns headed with the letters T, S, P, H, O, R and together we listed one character trait that began with each of those letters. I told them that I picked those letters for a reason, but wouldn’t tell them why until later in the day. Their excitement and interest level grew with curiosity.
5. Implement the Character Traits Activities
I gave them each a copy of the printable and challenged them to list 25 character traits that began with those letters in 15 minutes. I was amazed by their word choices (punctual, reluctant, rambunctious, sophisticated, etc). We came together as a class and compiled the individual ideas into an anchor chart. We talked about the words and their meanings as I added them to the list.
I printed the polygon printables from my geometry packet onto plain paper and used the photocopier to make 3 of each in an assortment of colors using construction paper. I passed them out to my students along with a graphic organizer. They used the graphic organizer to list their shapes attributes along with places the shape can be found (i.e. a triangle can be a sail on a boat, a slice of pizza, etc). I opted to do this prior to reading the story and doing the geometry craft because I wanted them to generate their own ideas and not just record the ones from the book. Using the graphic organizer and the story frame each of my friends composed two paragraphs.
6. Read Aloud the Book, The Greedy Triangle
After lunch I read, The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns. I had cut 10 strips of paper and attached them to each other using metal brads. At the start of the story I held 3 of them with the others folded in the back to form a triangle. As the story progressed and the triangle turned into a quadrilateral and then a pentagon and then a hexagon, etc., I revealed another side to form the new shape. This is a fun geometry craft your students can do along with you too if you’d like.
7. Do the Geometry Craft
The final (and crowd favorite) part of the project was bringing their shapes to life by adding eyes, mouths and other components. Your students will love this geometry craft!
8. Post the Finished Products on a Bulletin Board
Display the writing and craft projects on a bulletin board in your classroom.
Math Resources for 1st-5th Grade Teachers
We hope you found these literacy activities and geometry craft interesting! If you need additional math resources for your classroom, then check out my time and money-saving math collections below!
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Free Elementary Math Resources
We would love for you to try these elementary math resources with your students. It offers them opportunities to practice grade level concepts and skills in fun and engaging ways. You can download math worksheets specific to your grade level in our free printable math resources bundle using this link: free printable math activities for elementary teachers.
In closing, we hope you found this geometry craft idea helpful! If you did, then you may also be interested in these other math posts:
