|
Grandfather
Tang and Little Soo spend the afternoon sitting under a peach tree in
their backyard, making different shapes with their tangram pieces.
Grandfather Tang uses his pieces to tell a story about the fox fairies, Wu
Ling and Chou. The fox fairies are an important part of Chinese folklore
and are believed to be capable of changing their shapes.
Activities
1.
Have the children make their own tangram pieces out of construction
paper. Have
the children try to put the seven pieces back together to form a square.
(Making Your Own
Tangram)
2.
As they follow along in the story, have the children make the
shapes described with the tans they made.
3.
Have the children make up their own designs. They may want to
create their own story using the new designs.
Have
the children make the initial of their first name using all seven tans.
4.
Give the students a variety of tangrams. Have them combine the
tangrams to make geometric shapes, such as a square, triangle, rectangle,
trapezoid, and so forth. Individually, in small groups, or as a class, ask
the students to make a chart that shows how many shapes were made.
5.
Make tans out of flannel for the children to use on a
flannelboard.
6.
Tangoes is a game that contains numerous designs using tans. Have
children work with these.
7.
Other shapes can also be divided to make a puzzle. Using the
patterns in figures 5.4 and 5.5, cut the
shapes into A, B, C, and D pieces. Paperclip all the A pieces together,
the B pieces together, and so on. Divide the children into cooperative
groups of four and give each person one clipped bundle of pieces. The
objective is for each member of the group to try to create a hexagon. No
one may take a shape from anyone else, and the person with the shape must
offer it to the person who needs it. No talking is allowed.
|
