Triangle Mosquito Art

Most of the time, it's like pulling teeth to get Trevor to tell me what he did at school. I ask open-ended questions and get nothing more than a word or two. I make up crazy stories about what might have happened at school and ask if I got any of it right and I get a giggle... but no information. I ask yes/no questions and get "I don't remember." Sigh. But once in a while, Trevor greets me after school really excited to tell me about something they did. Such was the case with this triangle art: 

For whatever reason, Trevor LOVED it and was barely through the front door before he had supplies out for me to learn how to make my own.

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Triangle Art (Trevor's version)

Materials: paper, pencil, ruler, crayons, protractor

1. Use the ruler to draw a line segment that is 2" long. Label it AB.

2. Draw 5 or 6 points randomly on the paper. I asked if I should label the points C, D, E, F, G, and H. Trevor said I should NOT. If I'd been the teacher, I would have labeled the points, but I followed his directions and left them unlabeled.

3. Use the ruler to connect each unlabeled point to both point A and point B. 

4. Choose one crayon and color in the triangles formed with the first point. (This would be easier to describe if I'd been allowed to properly name the triangle. He did not agree.) 

5. After using the ruler and protractor, write a complete sentence in the blank space of the paper to indicate whether the triangle is equilateral, isosceles or scalene AND whether it is right, acute or obtuse. I asked if he really needed me to write each of these down, considering that I'd TAUGHT this very subject to students for 11 years. (Yes, I HAD to write it down. And he'd be checking my work for accuracy, spelling, and punctuation.)

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until all the triangles are colored and the sentences are written. 

You'll be pleased to hear that I got all of the answers correct. Of course, Trevor did double-check each one of them with the ruler and the protractor to make sure. 

Once my work was graded and Trevor moved on to his actual homework, I cut out the shape I'd created and added googly eyes. Now it's a mosquito.

Triangle Mosquito (Cindy's version)

Materials: the same as above, plus scissors, glue and googly eyes

1. Follow steps 1-6 above. 

2. Cut out the completed shape and rotate it until it looks like a mosquito. Add googly eyes.

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If I had a classroom's worth of these, I'd attach 3 or 4 to a line of filament and hang the 8 strands along a wall near a window so they'd sway in the breeze. After having my students properly name each triangle with all three points, of course.