Tangram
What is a Tangram?
Invented in China approximately 200 years ago, a tangram is a two-dimensional re-arrangement puzzle created by cutting a square into seven pieces -- seven geometric shapes called "tans" (Slocum et al 2003).
What are the seven shapes in a tangram? Each tangram puzzle contains the following:
2 large right triangles
1 medium-sized right triangle
2 small right triangles
1 small square
1 parallelogram
Arranged correctly, these tangram shapes can be fitted together as a large square, rectangle, or triangle. They can also be arranged in a variety of complex shapes, including fanciful ones (like the shapes below).
Flipping and Rotating the Shapes Video
Here is a quick video on how you can flip and rotate the different shapes to create the shapes in the tangram activity.
You can either hit play on the slide or advance the slides manually to see all of the tangrams. Once you are done looking at it, click the link under the Slideshow. It will ask you to make a copy of the document.
