THE TANGRAM

The tangram is a game whose origine is Chinese. It is formed by seven poligonal flat pieces, generally made by wood, with which it must create figures without overlaping them. In the early 19th century it was carried over to Europe, and it became very popular in the continent for a time then, and then again during World War I. It is one of the most popular dissection puzles in the world. 

The tangram provides lots of benefits: it promotes the development of intellectual and psychomotor abilities, stimulates the creativity and the formation of abstract ideas, fosters the logical-mathematical intelligence, improves the eye-hand coordination…

There are only thirteen convex shapes matched with the tangram set. Children must take into account, for example, in the equivalence  of several pieces, gathering the two small triangles, learners can build the square, the rhomboid or the medium triangle…

Primary students can play with the tangram to differentiate the area and the perimeter; in this way the would understand that a same area is not equal to the same perimeter. In my practices stage I could observe that misconception, some children believed that two polygons with the same area had the same perimeter, and I had to show them that they were wrong. I gave them an example so that they could understand in a notebook, but the tangram is the best tool in order to solve this problem, in my opinion.

An entertaining activity for any cycle would be to give freedom to learners so that they create the figures they want; thus they foster their imagination and creativity. Once they have formed it, they could measure the perimeter and the area, and they could correct the misconception I have detailed in the previous paragraph.

Playing with they tangram is very enjoyable for Primary children. They can practice and play with a didactic tool in an funny way while they are learning meaningful concepts about the measurement. Without any doubt, a great invention.