World of Tan 14 - Celebrations
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outlines of Little Ming and Little Fung dancing?
Age
7 to 11
Challenge level
This activity follows on from World of Tan 13 - A Storm in a Tea Cup.
The evening meal has just finished and the children are tidying everything away. Among the clatter of crockery and cutlery being washed and dried, Granma T looks at Little Fung and Little Ming quizzically.
Granma T: Aren't your penfriends from the International school coming to stay soon?
Before allowing either Little Fung or Little Ming to answer, she continues:
Granma T: We haven't made any preparations at all for this visit, just what are we going to do with them?
Little Ming: But Granma, Leo and Leone won't be here for ages, their school holiday doesn't start until about December 23rd. We have plenty of time to get things ready for them.
Little Fung, who was eager to get back to playing Luk tsut k'i: Yes, we've got loads of time.
Granma T: No! If this visit is to be a success, we must plan and prepare very carefully. Leo and Leone are making a huge sacrifice at this time of year to come and visit you two. Back home in their own country they would make quite a celebration of this holiday.
Later on in the evening, Little Fung, who had lost again to Little Ming at Luk tsut k'i, was bored and began to think aloud about Leo and Leone...
Little Fung: They'd be celebrating Christmas if they were back in England... I wonder what's so special for them about that holiday?
Little Ming: They might just as well be Muslim or Jewish children, or Hindus for that matter. Not all British people celebrate Christmas. I think we should ask them what they'd like to do.
Granma T: You're right, we must do all that we can to make their stay with us a happy and worthwhile one. We must plan and prepare, we must ask for the help of the others...
In the meantime, complete the silhouettes using the interactivity below.
Extra activities:
- Estimate how much time in minutes there is before your next school holiday starts. Once you've made your estimate, calculate this amount of time accurately. How close was your estimate?
- Research different religions and find out about some important celebrations in these religions.
The story continues in World of Tan 15 - Millennia.
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?