More Tangram Literature Connections

Grandfather Tang's Story by Ann Tempert

This book also uses tangrams to illustrate the story a grandfather tells his granddaughter.   Students will enjoy recreating the tangram creatures found throughout the book. 

•  Suggestion:  Assemble the tangram pieces to replicate figures in the book.   Trace around the outside of the figures then fill in the shape with black marker.   These are best traced onto oaktag or card stock and laminated or placed in plastic sheet protectors before use.   Place the tangram characters and tangram pieces in your math center for students to try during center time.
• Enrichment:  Ask students to create a new character for the book and make a tangram mat for the character that can be added to the tangram center for classmates to try. 

 Tangram Magician  by Lisa Campbell Ernst

This book is similar to Grandfather Tang's Story  in that the magician changes shapes throughout the story.  Students may use tangrams to reproduce the shapes.

The Tangram ABC Book  by T. Foster

The author presents several tangrams for each letter.  For example, the letter A is presented as an armadillo and an airplane tangram.  Once again, students may recreate these shapes using their own tangram sets.

• Suggestion:   younger students may have eye-hand coordination difficulty trying to recreate a shape from a smaller drawing in the book.  Teachers may wish to assemble and trace the tangram shapes on card stock, showing the placement of each piece.  Younger learners are challenged to correctly identify, place and orient the tangram pieces to recreate each shape.

Then and Now on Old MacDonald's Farm by T. Foster

The author uses tangram shapes to retell the traditional story.  Teachers may add this book to a farm or animal unit and challenge students to recreate each animal using their own tangrams.

Three Pigs, One Wolf and Seven Magic Shapes by Grace Maccarone is a mathematical take on the classic fairy tale.   Students are introduced to tangrams in this leveled reader.   The pigs use the seven magic shapes to form solutions to the problems they encounter.   Students will enjoy using tangrams to recreate the figures in the book as well as creating their own tangram figures for classmates to solve. 

• Download the Seven Magic Shapes Templates that show individual pieces so that young students can position tangram pieces correctly to form the characters in the book.   These templates were designed to be used with commercial tangram pieces. 
• Download the Seven Magic Shapes Shadow Templates  that show black shapes so that students must figure out how to position tangram pieces correctly to form the characters in the book.   These templates were designed to be used with commercial tangram pieces. 
• Download the Tangram Shapes Template that can be used to create tangram pieces to use with templates above if commercial tangram pieces are not available. 

These activities help students develop spatial sense as they manipulate tangram pieces to form the figures in the different templates.  Students will also enjoy this retelling of a classic story.

Differentiation:  Teachers may use either set of templates to accommodate the varied needs of learners in the class.  Some students may need to begin with the first set that clearly shows each piece; other students should be challenged to form figures on the shadow templates.

Enrichment:  Challenge students to form their own original templates or supply additional tangram figures to challenge students.  NOTE:  Some young students have great difficulty solving tangram puzzles when they are supplied with a small figure commonly found in tangram books.  Teachers may form the figures on oaktag, trace the pieces then blacken the whole figure to create a template.  Make several copies of the templates for classroom use.