World of Tan 11 - The past, present and future
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outlines of the telescope and microscope?
Problem
This activity follows on from World of Tan 10 - Butterflies.
It is 07:30 and Granma T's household is in disarray. For Little Ming and Little Fung it is the start of the new school term. The hustle and bustle has been caused by them getting all of their things together at the very last minute. Just where are their pens, pencils, books and lunchboxes?
Eventually, Little Ming and Little Fung set off across the yard. As they walk to school, Little Ming is clearly worried.
Little Ming: I'm sure our teacher is going to ask us to write about what we did in the holidays.
Little Fung: Well surely we can't write about the ransom and everything that happened?
Little Ming: No, Miss Lao would never believe what happened. She would complain that it was all too far-fetched.
Little Fung: I suppose we could skip the part about the ransom and just write about returning the lost plaque to Mr Cheung, how he rewarded us and gave an enormous street party.
Little Ming: It was an amazing party! I'm sure the whole village heard about all those celebrations and the fireworks, not to mention our rewards of the microscope and telescope.
Little Fung: Surely everyone now knows that Granma T suspected Mr Cheung's cousin, Yeung Lee, and that she secretly alerted the police? They arrested him before you even got to the park!
Little Ming: It was clever of Granma T to spot that the ransom note had been printed using the same ink as the 'council of war' meeting notes that Yeung Lee was typing up.
Little Fung: He seemed like such a nice person as well! It looks like he stole the plaque to get his own back on his cousin - he thought the plaque should've been passed down to him instead of Mr Cheung.
Little Ming: And Granma T had to go along with the plan of sending me to the zoo, so that Yeung Lee didn't get suspicious about the police getting involved!
Little Fung: What a story! You're right though, it is all a bit far-fetched. Why don't we just write about a day playing on the beach like everyone else?
In class, after registration, Miss Lao introduced the first task of the term.
Miss Lao: Instead of writing about our holidays, I thought we could do something different. I want you to imagine you had a really scary adventure over the past few weeks - or maybe you really did! Write about an adventure you would like to have had during the holidays.
Little Ming was sure that Miss Lao gave him a knowing wink!
In the meantime, complete the silhouettes using the interactivity.
Extra activities:
- Find different ways of writing 07:30. What are you normally doing at this time during the week? What about at the weekend?
- Write about an adventure you had. Your story can be imagined or real!
The story continues in World of Tan 12 - All in a Fluff.
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?
Possible extension
Pupils could have a go at other tangrams in the 'World of Tan' series. Some children might like to create their own tangram from the same pieces, or make their own tangram pieces by cutting up a square.
Possible support
Some children might need encouragement to experiment and 'have a go'. Using the printable tangram pieces will help all pupils try out their ideas.