Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Greedy Triangle


The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns is about a triangle that gets tired of doing the same old things, so it visits the shapeshifter to ask for one more side and one more angle.  Unfortunately, being a quadrilateral soon grows old and the triangle returns to the shapeshifter again and again for more sides and more angles.  Eventually, the triangle realizes that life as a triangle was pretty good and returns to the shapeshifter to rediscover life as a triangle. 

We enjoyed reading this book.  I always like to see books for children exploring the lesson of the grass not being greener on the other side.  This is also a great introduction to polygons.  C and R counted the sides on triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, heptagons, octagons, nonagons, and decagons.

R did a fun art project inspired by this book.  Using masking tape, I attempted to make an entire paper of polygons for R to paint.


She loved painting the shapes different colors.  When the paint dried, I carefully pulled off all of the masking tape and she had a beautiful piece of art.  R was so impressed with herself!! 

I really like the way this came out.  This is one art project we will definitely try again.


I am linking this to stArt at A Mommy's Adventures.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fabulous project! The cover of the book made me laugh. We'll have to check it out soon!

Annette W. said...

I think M would love this too!

Jennifer said...

I snatched this book up at the bookstore the other day! I love the art project too! This will be a great project for my dad to do with Nani (he's coming for a 2-week visit today!) Thanks so much for sharing!

Karen Wilson said...

I love R's picture. I used to read "The Greedy Triangle" with first grade. It's a cute story. "Captain Invincible and the Space Shapes" is another cute shape book.

Amanda said...

Love it! We have quite the rainy weather this week, this looks like a fantastic project for us!

Valerie @ Inner Child Fun said...

LOVE how this turned out!!! It's beautiful!

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Wow! The end result is terrific.

MamaGames - Alexa C. said...

We have loved doing this kind of tape-resist art... but I never thought of linking it to polygons and math! What a great idea. We have this book on our shelves - I'm definitely adding this to our to-do list. :)

Chelsea said...

Wow! R's artwork is gorgeous. I would hang it on my wall. Is she taking commissions? I am definitely going to be doing this one.

Debbie said...

This is such a great project, look at all those shapes.

Rebecca said...

Her picture came out great!

Brimful Curiosities said...

That is an excellent way to explore shapes.

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

Beautiful! How is it that sometimes the simplest things work out best. We will definitely try it too at some point. And we also enjoyed this book.

RedTedArt said...

Wow! This turned out really great! love masking tape!

Maggy
Kids Get Crafty
Red Ted Art

Ticia said...

That is way too cute, I bet my kids would love to do this!

Lynn said...

LOVE your project! Starred it in my google reader. I've been thinking about doing something that for awhile. I bought painter's tape and never did it. It seems like it would be great for when kids can't stay in the lines yet. I put that book on hold at my library awhile ago too and have been waiting for it to come in. :)

LitLass said...

That looks great! We'll definitely have to try it.

Amanda said...

I am definitely keeping that book in mind next time we go to the library! Great project too!

Jenny said...

How do you think of these things? Fun project!

MaryAnne said...

That sounds like a cute book, and I love R's artwork!

Unknown said...

I love this idea. I will have to try it with my son.

The book sounds great with a wonderful lesson.

Lynn said...

I linked to this post from my blog today :)
http://infantbibliophile.blogspot.com/2010/10/greedy-triangle-review-and-companion.html

Michelle said...

I am going to be featuring this project on my stART post tomorrow! I used a picture from your post, and linked back to you. Please let me know if that is ok...otherwise I would have no problem taking it off and just linking to you in the text! Thank you for joining in on stART and sharing your amazing ideas. I always enjoy seeing the wonderful things you do each week!