Room 14

Tangrams

Room 14 have been learning about the history of Tangrams and how Tangrams can be used to create designs.

A Tangram consists of:

Two large triangles

One square

One medium triangle

Two small triangles

 One parallelogram.

There are seven Tangram pieces. Ancient Chinese puzzles began with a square. Each piece is a called a Tan. All pieces must be used and cannot overlap. 

A Chinese man Tan’s greatest possession was a fine ceramic tile. Tan dropped a tile on his way to show the emperor and it broke into seven geometric shapes. He spent the rest of his life putting them back together. He was not successful but created many designs. Tan enjoyed creating designs. Later these were called Tangrams. These are the oldest most enduring geometric puzzles.

Room 14 listened to the story Three Pigs, One Wolf and Seven Magic Shapes and then with their seven magic shapes, using them wisely, created a duck, cat, rabbit,  candle, swan, house and a boat like they did in the story.

We have managed to slide, flip and turn our Tangram shapes to help us be more creative with our designs.