A tangram is an ancient chinese moving piece puzzle, consisting of 7 geometric shapes, 5 triangles, a square, and a parallelogram.
It interests the math inclined with the geometry and ratios of the pieces. You find them used in classrooms around the world to teach basic math ideas in an interesting way.
When making your own tangram you can use any material you want so long as you can cut or form it into shape. To start, paper, cardboard, or fun foam work well. If you find yourself using it a lot you may want to choose something more sturdy like plastic or wood. Sets have even been made out of metals, stone, and ivory. Whatever material you choose, make sure you have a square piece approximately 4″x4″. You can scale it up or down if you desire, but 4″ is an easy size to work with. You will also need something to cut that material with.
Draw a 4×4 grid on your material. Then mark the cutting lines as shown below in blue.
Carefully cut along the blue lines. Keep them as straight as possible.
So, what do you do now that you have your pieces? You play with them of course!
The basic rules are to use all 7 pieces to create a design. The pieces must all lay flat, no overlapping, and must be touching. Of course, you can also break the rules and just have fun making designs.
For more fun, make one set of pieces for each person and have a race to see who can figure out a design the fastest. Or, you can each create your own design, trace the outline, and then challenge the other person to recreate it.
To get design ideas or try it out without the cutting, check out this Virtual Tangram Puzzle website recommended in the Quicklinks from the Illustrated Dictionary of Math.
More From Jennifer Lavender
What a fun looking project!. My two boys love math and I think they would really like this. Thanks. PS. I love your site it has so many things I enjoy on it.