Tangrams or “Ancient Chinese Puzzle” to Grade 3 Class.

Debbie Wood -Walter Aseltine School --

Grade 3 Tangrams Goal: To teach Tangrams or “Ancient Chinese Puzzle” to Grade 3 Class. 

This lesson connected to Social Studies, Art and Math. 

Social Studies IN3.1 Analyze daily life in a diversity of communities. Summary: 

Step 1: Taught to the class what a Tangram or Ancient Chinese Puzzle was. 

Step 2: We then took a square that was divided into 7 Geometric shapes and cut them out. 

Step 3: The students then played with their 7 pieces to create a picture. The goal was to use all 7 pieces in one structure. It was at this point that I began to see 3 different styles of learning: -students who clearly saw a way to connect all the pieces together without any help. Great imagination. -students who used examples of structures and built their structures from there - Students who broke the 7 pieces apart and created a picture and not a structure. Students who were doing this found this project a struggle and had difficulties seeing how the pieces could all work together. 

Step 4: Once the students were happy/satisfied with what they created they glued it down on a piece of construction paper.

 Step 5: I then allowed them to color in their pieces and add details to their structure. Step 6: Students then named their creation.