Tangrams

Fold or draw out the tangram parts from a one unit square. A popular activity. Create objects using all 7 pieces. Find the area of each part as a fraction of the unit square. Links to other interesting and useful tangram sites.

Instructions to create the tangram by drawing lines or folding can be found here, though more is available here in the files Problems 3, 3r, 4 and 4r. Note that if you use Chrome as your browser then these interactive files might not work (you are instead asked if you want to Keep or Discard the files), then Discard and go to the link here and follow the instructions to enable the relevant plugin. Mac and Windows instructions are both there: scroll down. You only have to do this once. You will need relevant permission to do this on the computer.

Tangrams pdf (updated March 2017)  Tangrams flipchart (updated March 2017)  Tangrams notebook

Note that the Smart notebook contains all images and text etc but may not be look correct as it has been created from original flipchart file, however it has not been updated in March 2017.

In February 2016 the British Museum offeredd a KS3 challenge that included a section related to Tangrams in Room 33 – China: the challenge is found here

They also blog about the Tangram with references to materials in the Museum dating back to 1815 – BM Tangram Blog. Here is picture from the blog.