World of Tan 2 - Little Ming
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outline of Little Ming?
Age
7 to 11
Challenge level
Problem
World of Tan began with World of Tan 1 - Granma T.
Little Ming
Hi!
I'm Little Ming, I'm here with my sister Little Fung. I am 11 years old, and I was born in the Year of the Dragon. Little Fung is one year younger, born in the Year of the Snake. We spend a lot of time helping Granma T with her business. She says we 'hinder' rather than 'help' her, but we disagree!
Last week we told her that when she makes deliveries to four different stores, the journey can be done in 24 different ways! I don't think she believed us.
Can you complete my silhouette and that of Little Fung? Use the interactivities below.
Extra activities:
- Find out more about Chinese years and which different animals these were named after. What year could Little Ming have been born in? What about Little Fung?
- Imagine that Granma T wants to deliver to four different shops. Make up some names for the four shops, and write down what order she could visit them in. Can you find 24 different orders that she could visit them in? What about if there were three shops? Or five shops?
Printable NRICH Roadshow resource.
The story continues in World of Tan 3 - Mah Ling.
Teachers' Resources
Why do this problem?
This problem is an engaging context in which pupils can consolidate their knowledge of the properties of squares, triangles and parallelograms. By attempting this activity, children will be putting into practise their visualising skills, making guesses about where the different shapes might go before trying out their ideas. When combining the shapes to make the tangram, pupils will use their understanding of translations, reflections and rotations to decide how to transform each shape. There are also links between tangrams and fractions, and children can be encouraged to work out what fraction of the whole square is represented by each smaller shape.Possible approach
Read this story with the whole class and look at the tangram as a group. Ask pupils to suggest where a shape might go. What transformation would be needed to move the shape into that position?When pupils are solving the tangram, they would benefit from working in pairs with a tablet or a printed copy of the shapes to cut out and move around. Working together will lead to rich discussions about the possible options for where each shape can go. When the children have solved the tangram, they can have a go at the extra activities.
At the end of the lesson, bring all of the pupils together and model the solution on the whiteboard. How does each shape need to be transformed? What fraction of the whole picture is each shape?
Key questions
What could you put with this piece to make a square?Are all of the pieces different?
What's the smallest square you can make?
What has to go in that space? How do you know?