Grandfather Tang's Story (told with tangrams)

I described tangrams in my February 9, 2009 post.Tangrams are ancient Chinese puzzles which are comprised of seven pieces, or "tans".

This story is about two fox fairies. In Chinese folklore, they are believed to have supernatural powers of transformation.

Before I read this story to the class, I enlarged the tangrams and made the shapes from construction paper. I then glued each shape onto cartridge paper and laminated the sheets. As I read the story,I held up the new animal shape for the students to guess the next transformation. They really enjoyed the challengeand the story!

The class then worked with a set of tangrams to duplicate the shapes.

I found that integrating stories with math concepts was rewarding for both my class and myself.