Shape Lessons with Style

Shape lessons with style.

Keynote for iPad makes it easy for students to visualize almost anything they can imagine — from math concepts to works of art. New ideas shine even brighter on the large Liquid Retina display of iPad. Bring color and shape to World Creativity Day with this fun classroom activity.

Design with Shapes today

Watch imagination take shape.

Watch imagination

take shape.

Perfect for all ages and customizable for any topic, the Design with Shapes project helps students capture and share ideas easily on iPad. They’ll learn how to transform simple shapes into masterpieces — in minutes.

Discover a world of possibilities.

Find stories and resources from educators and get inspired to bring this to your students.

Posted by Mary McEvilly

Posted by Christian Löhlein

Posted by Malinn Hellen Sele

Posted by Ruth Burnett

Posted by James Dove

Posted by Johan Sköld

Posted by Bethany LaDue Nugent

Posted by Laurie Doran

Posted by Peter Mandak

Posted by Ruth Burnett

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Shape a Self Portrait

Mary McEvilly

In this creative project, students use shapes in Keynote to design a self portrait inspired by the bold, fragmented style of artists like Pablo Picasso and Sonia Delaunay. Drawing from Cubism’s geometric forms and Orphism’s vibrant colors, students explore and experiment with shapes to create an abstract and engaging representation of themselves. This hands‑on activity encourages students to experiment with form, color, and composition on iPad while developing their digital design skills. It’s a fun and innovative way to blend art and technology.

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Design Your Own Animal Infographic

Christian Löhlein

Have you ever wanted to showcase your favorite animal in a fun and creative way? In this project, students bring animal descriptions to life by designing eye-catching infographics. Using iPad, they research fascinating facts, structure information visually, and combine images, symbols, and text to create compelling designs. Finally, they present their infographics to the class and reflect on their creative choices. It’s a hands‑on and engaging way to turn research into visual storytelling.

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What is an animal?

Malinn Hellen Sele

How can we tell if something is an animal? Young learners will dive into a fun discussion about what makes an animal, well, an animal! Then they’ll let their imaginations run wild by creating fantasy creatures using Keynote shapes and drawing tools with Apple Pencil. Once their magical animals come to life, they’ll write enchanting stories about their adventures. To top it all off, they’ll record a video where they read their tales and animate their unique creatures.

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Set the Stage with Shapes

Ruth Burnett

Step into a world of your imagination. In this storytelling activity, students are tasked with designing the perfect setting for a fairy tale — crafting enchanted forests, towering castles, or mysterious caves using Keynote shapes. Combine this with a screen recording of students explaining their settings, using descriptive vocabulary to really bring their story’s backdrop to life and set the stage for magical adventures.

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Design Your Own Flower

James Dove

This Flower Power lesson for 6–8 year olds will teach students how to use limits to unleash their creativity and craft visually‑appealing designs within a specific visual language. Explore how Keynote can help students create designs following rules, and delve into design language and themes like color, shape, form, literacy, and creativity. You can take it a step further by having students use Keynote shapes to create their own bugs or birds, too.

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Frankenstein: A Visual Interpretation

Johan Sköld

In this project, students illustrate Frankenstein using only Keynote shapes, emphasizing symbolism and visual storytelling. The composition features the creature at the center, surrounded by elements representing key themes: lightning for creation, a broken heart for rejection, and laboratory tools for scientific experimentation. Dark clouds and a watchful eye reinforce the gothic atmosphere and moral dilemmas of the story. By layering, subtracting, and breaking apart shapes, students develop both design skills and deeper literary understanding using iPad — transforming a classic novel into a striking visual narrative.

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Design Cell City

Bethany LaDue Nugent

Imagine turning a science concept like cell structure into a vibrant, student‑designed city — all within Keynote on iPad. By using shapes and a few simple formatting tricks, students can creatively map out how organelles function just like parts of a real‑world city. With Keynote for iPad’s powerful tools, they can even bring it to life with audio or video recordings explaining each part. This hands‑on approach helps students visualize and connect cell functions to everyday life in a way that truly sticks. Get ready for an engaging lesson that fuels creativity, critical thinking, and a new twist on a classic project.

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Alebrijes: Create Your Own Spirit Animal

Laurie Doran

Looking for a fun, creative project that blends cultural exploration with digital design? Introduce your students to Alebrijes — vibrant, fantastical creatures from Mexican folk art that boldly, colorfully combine features from different animals. Using Keynote shapes and Apple Pencil, students will design their own Alebrije. This hands‑on activity encourages imagination while exploring a rich artistic tradition. Perfect for sparking creativity, it blends art, culture, and technology in an engaging, easy‑to‑implement project for any classroom.

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Create Fantasy Plants

Peter Mandak

Inspired by old herbarium collections, students can create beautiful fantasy plants in Keynote from simple shapes and objects. Discover the blue shoe Gerbera, a pink snake‑labiate, or the sparkling diamond dandelion. Let your learners create their own fantastic plants and be surprised about the countless new discoveries they will make.

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Unleash Your Inner Artist

Ruth Burnett

Challenge your students to unleash their inner abstract artist. Explore the power of shapes and vibrant colors. Inspired by the abstract masterpieces of Kandinsky, students can arrange geometric forms and experiment with color palettes to create their own unique, expressive artwork. Let the shapes dance and the colors sing!

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