Tangrams: The Seven Magic Shapes

Three Pigs, One Wolf and the Seven Magic Shapes by Grace Maccarone is a wonderful introduction for younger students to tangrams. The Tangram is an ancient Chinese puzzle in which one is to form a specific shape given only in outline or silhouette using all seven pieces, which may not overlap. In this book, the seven shapes make different characters or objects that further the plot. The tangrams in this book are not a single silhouette; the pieces are set slightly apart so that the young readers can manipulate the tans (the individual shapes that make up the set of tangrams) and copy the pictures. After copying several different pictures from the book, Quentin felt confidant enough to make his own pictures. These can be traced onto paper and given to other people to solve. It is a lot of fun for young children to see others working on a puzzle they have created.

resources:

• Another resource about tangrams can be found at Love2Learn2day.