Twist Your Brain: Let's Do Tangrams

I was meaning to make a puzzle activity sheet using the popsicle sticks that I also shared a few days back. However, our desktop computer has broken down so my son and I always have to share on the laptop and of course he always gets the priority since he has to finish his modules online.

Saturday though, is our day allocated for arts (ey, it's arts day for Little Miss everyday!) so while the kids were busy doing their arts, I had a chance to browse through some more activities and looked for puzzles that all of my kids - aged 11, 6 and 4 will be able to use.

Tangrams

Then I remembered this puzzle that my cousins and I loved to play when we were kids. These are basically polygons that can be put together to create different shapes and designs.

These are called tangrams.

Tangrams originated from China. It is made of 7 Tans (shapes), that can be constructed into different other shapes.

There are:

• 2 large right triangles
• 1 square
• 1 smaller right triangle
• 2 small triangles
• 1 parallelogram

Put together properly, these 7 shapes form a big square.

Few clicks through my BFF, Google led me to this site which has free printable of patterns that are appropriate to my kids' ages.

The tangrams are so colorful, which are good, to attract my kids' attention. I printed it on a plain bond paper and then glued it on a cardboard. To make it sturdier, I put an adhesive type plastic cover over the tangrams. It gives the laminated effect to the cutouts.

After laminating, it is time to cut out the tangrams. The printable I found has 2 sets of tangrams, which is good when I want my two younger ones to solve the puzzles together.

There are also two sets of patterns included in the printable, one with guidelines, for smaller kids (easy) and another set without lines.

What are tangrams good for?

If it is not yet obvious, it can teach shapes and even colors to smaller children. It also teaches shapes decomposition and composition, including characteristics of the shapes.

Tangrams are also said to improve visual-spatial skills, as children fit the shapes and solve the puzzles by flipping and rotating.

It also challenges the kids and can help them improve logic and it is said that kids who do tangrams exercises perform better at arithmetic tests immediately thereafter.

In general here are the some of the reasons why you'd want your kids to get their hands on tangrams quite often:

• classify shapes
• develop positive feelings about geometry
• gain a stronger grasp of spatial relationships
• develop an understanding of how geometric shapes can be decomposed
• hone spatial rotation skills
• acquire a precise vocabulary for manipulating shapes (e.g., "flip," "rotate")
• learn the meaning of congruence

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Tangrams for all ages!

If you think it's only for kids, then think again. Anybody can benefit from these brain exercises. Even I find myself enjoying solving the patterns.

There are lots of patterns that can be printed off the internet for free. When the "easy" patterns become boring, we can always "level up".

To bring a sense of competition among my kids, I let them solve the puzzle with a timer. Whoever finishes fastest, wins!

It is also a great diversion from digital media, and computer games, and is just (or more) as fun.

So go ahead, download these fun puzzle games. You don't need to be a kid to love this. 😉

Cheers!
Arlyn