What is a tangram?

A tangram consists of seven geometric shapes that can be fitted together to make a square.

In my post on February 7, I mentioned two books that I used in my classroom to teach tangrams. Tangrams can be re-arranged into various shapes and are a valuable teaching tool for geometry. The students enjoy the challenge of re-arranging the tangram shapes into different shapes.

It is possible to buy plastic tangram sets for your class. Have your class sit in a circle and practise with the individual sets to copy the shapes from the stories. The biggest challenge is to re-form the square!

Click in the on the image to enlarge and print.