Tangrams

A Tangram is a 7-piece math puzzle which provides students with a way to critically think about different shapes and their properties.

It also introduces the basic skills of transformation (turn, flip, and slide) in an explorative and intuitive way, this will help bridge the gap between this topic and future units involving geometry.

Image Source: Actam

The Activity

Each student has a Tangram set (or can be printed and each piece cut out at home), and explores the different pieces, what shapes are there, how they are able to fit together.
Students try to use their pieces to create images prompted by teacher; “use your pieces to create a rocket”, “use your pieces to create a dog”.
Students are given silhouette puzzles that they have to use their tangram pieces to solve in without gaps or overlaps.
Students create silhouettes, that they then give to other students in their class to try solving.

Materials:

Tangram Puzzle Pieces
Tangram Shape Silhouettes
Markers and Paper

Enabling Prompts

Students use their tangram pieces to fill in silhouettes which have the outline of how the shapes fit within the space. This way students are matching the shapes with their lined form.

Extending Prompts

Visit Tangram Builder – Mathigon and use your tangram pieces to complete the puzzles, moving from basic to advanced, using flip and rotation to match them.
Pick three pieces from your Tangram puzzle, what shapes can you make with the greatest number of sides? The least corners? Pick three different pieces and try again.

Relevance to 21st Century Learning

Critical Thinking

Tangram puzzles use geometric thinking (how will the shapes combine and fit together), spatial reasoning (not all the shapes will fit in the puzzle in the way they are initially displayed, students will have to rotate and flip the image), and problem solving (manipulating the pieces to form an image). It also creates discourse due to there being multiple solutions for many of the 'puzzles', which generates discussion between the class on how students reached their answer.

Creativity

Freely creating an image (horse, rocket etc.), allows the students to assemble their shapes imaginatively in a way that represents that prompt to them. This also links geometry to the real world, by allowing them to naturally discover how all objects are just made up of different shapes.

Collaboration

This activity allows for collaboration through the whole class, small groups and pairs. Students can discuss how they put their pieces together to create the shapes. Learners also get excited when they are able to complete a silhouette challenge created by one of their peers, rather than only by the teacher

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