Playing with a Tangram Square 
 

The Chinese  wonderfully invented the Tangram Square and it has fascinated people ever since.Let's know all about Tangrams.

Something about Shapes:

Shapes fascinate one and all. Everything around us has a shape. The most important form i.e. humans have a shape. All objects around us have a particular shape. Humans connect well to the shapes they remember or to those shapes which appeal to them.

Children also tend to recognize shapes from early on in their lives.

Shapes in our daily lives:

“Geometry is the art of correct reasoning from incorrectly drawn figures.”

Geometry which basically means the measurement of the earth basically deals with space and figures. It is used to measure length, area, volume, etc.

Geometry exists in every walk of our lives. Hence it is important to teach geometry to the students at an early age. The more affinity and likeness that they have to shapes, the better they become in understanding and solving geometry.

The children come to learn about the different kinds of shapes when they are in kindergarten. Here they are also taught about some spatial concepts like ‘above’, ‘below’, ‘over’, etc.

Both these important concepts are well combined in a Chinese Mathematical puzzle called the Tangrams.

What are Tangrams?

Tangrams are a set of seven geometrical shapes. There are two large triangles, one medium-sized triangle, two small triangles, one square and one parallelogram. If you arrange these shapes properly, they make a square.

This puzzle was invented by the Chinese around 200 years ago. The tangram travelled to Britain from China and it started gaining popularity. From the UK it went to Europe and then across the Atlantic to the United States of America.

In ancient times itself, people had arranged tangrams into more than 6500 shapes. Today these pieces of shapes are still being reinvented into different shapes by people who love to solve these puzzles. A tangram can be made by cutting a square into its seven geometrical shapes. Nowadays one can play with tangrams online also.

Each part is called a tan. The best way to play is to give a picture to the children who have a shape. Let them place the tans in a manner that they resemble the design given. The seams of the tans should be invisible in the picture which is provided to the students.

While arranging tans, one must take care that the seams should be touching were; they should not overlap and there should not be any gap between the seams.

Advantages in Education:

When the students experiment with the tans while trying to assert them according to the picture, they analyse the shapes. They look at it from different perspectives. They have to visualize the pattern in their minds. They juggle with different arrangements. Since the outlines in the given picture are not visible the child has to envision the placement of different shapes in his mind. This helps to develop the visual spatial skills among the children.

It was found that if the kids played with tangrams or puzzles similar to them for 40 minutes and then appeared for an arithmetic pen and paper test, they scored much better than their regular class test. Also, the results after playing with tangrams was much better rather than games like a crossword.

Educational benefits of Tangrams:

1.      The children learn new vocabulary like flip, rotate, etc.

2.      They gain a familiarity with the shapes and hence a better understanding of geometry.

3.      They have a better understanding of spatial relationships.

4.      They understand the formation and decomposition of the geometric shapes.

Schools should introduce Tangrams and let the students experiment invigoratingly. They are a sign of healthy growth in Mathematics.

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