Learning Objectives

Students will:

1. learn about tangrams;
2. be able to draw a tangram by inserting shapes;
3. be able to use tangram pieces to form animals, figures, letters, plants, etc.;
4. create a story based on the patterns formed with tangram pieces.

Preparation

1. Engraving materials: 3mm basswood sheets
2. Laserbox
3. Colored Markers

Session 1  Lead-in

You can start the lesson by describing the history and composition of the tangram.

The tangram, or qiqiaoban (in Chinese), is an educational toy originated from the ancient China. However, historians still don’t know exactly when they were invented. Some believe that they were invented in Ming or Qing Dynasty (Mid-14th century to early-20th century), while others argue the invention can be dated back to more than a thousand years ago.

Qiqiaoban (referring to seven intriguing pieces in Chinese) consists of five isosceles right triangles (two small, one medium, and two large ones), one square, and one parallelogram. Amazingly, these seven pieces can make at least 1600 designs, including numbers, English letters, human figures, animals, plants, buildings, etc.

For the complete lesson plan and instruction manual, please download the Lesson Plan.