Did you know…
There are seven game pieces used for tangram puzzles and over 5,900 patterns that can be made from them!
Activity: Make Tangram Puzzles
You will need:
Tangram puzzle pieces
Tangram puzzle patterns
Card stock paper
Pencil
Ruler
Scissors
Colored pencils or crayons – optional
Index cards that will fit the size of your finished puzzles
Print out or construct your puzzle pieces and color them if you want. Use card stock or thick grade paper so that the pieces can be used multiple times.
After cutting your puzzle pieces out carefully, play around with them for a bit to see what they look like when you put the shapes together in certain ways. When you are ready, print out puzzles to solve, but don’t peek at the solutions until you are ready!
Variation #1: Homemade Puzzles: Using smaller Tangram pieces that you make yourself, design your own puzzle cards. To do this, make your puzzle on an index card and trace around your completed design with a pencil, then go over it with a dark colored crayon or marker. Put solutions on the back in pencil and then give your puzzles to someone else to solve.
Variation #2: Tangram Art: Make your own designs from pieces that you make, glue them to a piece of paper, color them in and create a scene around them.
If you would rather play Tangrams online, try this site out:
PBS Kids: Tangrams
Rules: The traditional rules to the game say that you must use all seven pieces, they must lay flat, they must touch one another, and they can not over lap.
Question of the day:
In what year did Tangrams come to America?
Learn more…
abcteach.com: Tangrams
Printable patterns and puzzles
Tangram House
Play an Tangrams online
Tangram Channel
Puzzles, solutions, history, geometry connection and more.
Squidoo: Tangrams Activities
Article about Tangrams filled with links to other sites
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