The Greedy Triangle

Book Title: The Greedy Triangle

Posted By: Meagan Figueroa

Author: Marilyn Burns

Illustrator: Gordon Silveria

Recommended Grade Level: K -5^th grade

CCSSM Standards:

Common Core Content Standards Addressed

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.G.B.6
Compose simple shapes to form larger shapes. For example, "Can you join these two triangles with full sides touching to make a rectangle?"

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.G.A.2
Compose two-dimensional shapes (rectangles, squares, trapezoids, triangles, half-circles, and quarter-circles) or three-dimensional shapes (cubes, right rectangular prisms, right circular cones, and right circular cylinders) to create a composite shape, and compose new shapes from the composite shape.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.G.A.1
Recognize and draw shapes having specified attributes, such as a given number of angles or a given number of equal faces.¹ Identify triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, and cubes.

Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice

CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP2 Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

• ·         Understanding the abstract concepts behind shapes and geometry.

CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP4 Model with mathematics.

Summary:

The greedy triangle is the story of a triangle who is unhappy with being a triangle so he decides to visit a shapeshifter to change his shape to make his life more exciting. The shapeshifter adds a side and turns the triangle into a quadrilateral. The triangle is happy but only for a little bit and decides to visit the shapeshifter again. The shapeshifter adds another side and turns him into a pentagon. This cycle keeps occurring because the triangle is never satisfied with his new shape. Eventually the triangle realizes that he is unhappy and was happy when he was a triangle so he visits the shapeshifter and is turned back into a triangle.

Rating:

This is a 5-star book. It can be used across different grades because it teaches a board understanding of geometry. The book is also great because it teachers a life lesson that children can learn from, which is you should be happy with who you are. The book is also bright and fun and brings shapes into real world situations.

Classroom Ideas:

1. This book can be used as a great introduction book for geometry when introducing shapes and the vocabulary used to describe shapes. This can be used to recognize shapes in the real world. The book not only dives into shapes but relays them to real life objects that represent that shape. For example, it shows a triangle as the sails of a boat and as a slice of pie. These are great connections of math to the real world.
2. This also could be used to explore more complex ideas in geometry such as the correlations between the number of sides and angles within a shape. Also, diving into creating shapes from other shapes by adding sides and angles.