Trigonometry Activities

Looking for hands-on trigonometry activities? Here’s a collection of 28 fun and engaging trig activities that I have created over the past decade while teaching trigonometry and pre-calculus to high school math students.

hands-on trigonometry activities

Right Triangle Trig Activities

Clinometer Activity and Foldable

clinometer made out of yellow cardstock.

I love this clinometer activity for giving my trigonometry students extra practice finding missing angles and sides of right triangles. Plus, it answers the question of “When will we ever use this?”

Evaluating Trig Functions Square Puzzle Activity

evaluating trig functions square puzzle activity.

I used this evaluating trig functions square puzzle recently with my trigonometry students. We glued our completed puzzles in our interactive notebooks. This puzzle was created and shared by NCTM Illuminations under the name “Trigonometry Square.”

Trig Ratios Puzzle

trig ratios puzzle.

Check out this trig ratios puzzle which I discovered on Open Middle and transformed into a printable puzzle for my students to tackle.

Degrees and Radians Activities

What is a Radian? Hands-On Activity

What is a Radian Activity.

I created this hand-on exploration for my trigonometry students to explore the question “What is a Radian?”

Radians and Degrees War

radians and degrees game.

Help students practice converting between radians and degrees with a fun game of radians and degrees war.

Radian Arts and Crafts Activity

what does a radian look like bulletin board.

This radian arts and crafts activity is designed to help students conceptually understand what a radian is. As a bonus, it creates a beautiful, mathematical art display for your classroom.

Printable Radian Sectors

printable radian sectors

Several summers ago, I created a set of printable radian sectors to illustrate what different amounts of radians looked like when graphed in standard form.

Angles in Standard Position Activities

Angle Spinner for Sketching Angles in Standard Position

angle spinner activity in interactive notebook.

This angle spinner for sketching angles in standard position is one of my favorite pages in our trigonometry interactive notebooks.

Coterminal Angles Card Sort Activity

coterminal angles card sort activity in interactive notebook 

I created this coterminal angles card sort activity for my trigonometry students to complete and glue in their interactive notebooks. Students have to sort the angle cards into groups that are coterminal with one another.

Odd One Out Coterminal Angles Activity

coterminal angles activity with odd one out structure and paper plate angle spinners

I created this odd one out activity to give my pre-calculus students extra practice identifying coterminal angles. In this activity, students were placed in groups of 4. Each group was given a set of four angle cards. They must work together to determine the Odd One Out.

The Great Quadrant Guessing Game

great quadrant guessing game for trigonometry

I created The Great Quadrant Guessing Game several years ago to give my Pre-Calculus students some extra practice determining which quadrant of the coordinate plane was represented by two trigonometric facts.

Quadrants Unlocked Activity

quadrants unlocked trigonometry activity

I created this fun quadrants unlocked activity to give my pre-calculus students some much needed practice determining the signs of trig functions in various quadrants.

Unit Circle Activities

Deriving the Unit Circle Foldable

Deriving the Unit Circle Foldable.

Several years ago, I created this deriving the unit circle foldable for my trigonometry students to work through and glue in their interactive notebooks.

Unit Circle Paper Plate Activity

stack of paper plates with text "unit circle paper plate"

Make the unit circle memorable with this unit circle paper plate activity.

Unit Circle Project Examples

Ferris Wheel Unit Circle Project.

After years of seeing other teachers share pictures of the unit circle projects their students created, I decided to finally take the plunge.  I assigned my trig students the task of creating a visual representation (2d or 3d) of the unit circle in lieu of a semester test in trigonometry. Check out the results!

Unit Circle Magnets

unit circle magnets in high school precalculus classroom 

I created these unit circle magnets to use with my dry erase magnetic unit circle from EAI Education. I plan to use the magnets both as a way to have a large unit circle on the wall of my classroom and for various activities throughout the year.

Unit Circle Bingo Game

unit circle bingo game

I decided to create a Unit Circle Bingo Game to give my Pre-Calculus students some much-needed practice with evaluating trig functions using the unit circle. Technically, this is more of a game of connect 4 than bingo, but bingo just sounds more fun.

Leap Frog Game for Evaluating Trig Functions with the Unit Circle

Trig Leap Frog Game.

This Leap Frog style game gives students much-needed practice evaluating trig functions using the unit circle.

Fill in the Blank Unit Circle Chart

blank unit circle chart

I created this fill-in-the-blank unit circle chart for my pre-calculus classes to use as they practice constructing the unit circle from memory.

Graphing Trig Functions Activities

Parent Graphs of Trig Functions Clothespin Matching Activity

trig graph matching activity

This parent graphs of trig functions clothespin matching activity has been in the making for multiple years. Students must match each statement with the appropriate parent functions.

Trig Mini Poster Project

trig mini poster project text above drawing of sine graph with speech bubble spelling "sin"

This Trig Mini Poster Project gives students lots of practice with graphing trigonometric functions.

Trig Identity Activities

Trig Identities Challenge Activity

trig identities challenge activity.

This Trig Identities Challenge Activity will engage students and give them tons of practice rewriting trig expressions using trig identities.

Trig Identities Matching Activity

trig identity matching activity.

Introduce the concept of trig identities with this hands-on trig identities matching activity.

Word Ladder Puzzles for Introducing Trig Identities

Ladder Structure for Trig Identity Problems.

Sarah Newton shares a fun hook for introducing trig identities – a word ladder puzzle. I have tried this activity with my students, and they had so much fun!

Double Angle Identities Joke Worksheet

double angle identities joke worksheet

Use double angle identities to rewrite each expression and answer the joke of “Why was the mathematician late for work?”

One or Negative One Trig Identities Worksheet

one or negative one trig identities worksheet

I really like the simplicity of this One or Negative One? Trig Identities Task that I found in the 8th Edition of Demana and Waits’ Pre-Calculus Textbook (Section 5.1). That’s why I decided to turn it into a worksheet!

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