World of Tan 17 - Weather
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outline of the house?
Problem
Little Ming and Little Fung suddenly burst in on Granma T, who is dozing in front of the fire.
Little Fung: There are pictures of floods all over England. Some in a place called Kent. And some around Cambridge.
Little Ming: There are 48 flood warnings on rivers in Britain. Water is everywhere. Running into people's homes and businesses!
Little Fung: We've seen cars and vans stranded in what look like lakes and ponds.
Little Ming: Their meadows are now just like our paddy fields.
Little Fung: The animals are stranded and they say that the crops can't grow. Can this be true? Isn't water good for plants?
Little Ming: One man was rowing out to rescue some sheep that were stuck on some higher ground.
Little Fung: Instead of driving down the road, people were going up to the houses in small boats. Firemen were helping older people get out through their windows, and they rescued some people who were stranded on their roof!
Little Ming: There was one incredible picture - it showed a railway station, but you couldn't see the train lines. It looked just like the canal down by Huang Ti's hardware store.
Little Fung: Phew, thank goodness our rainy season won't start for a few more months.
Granma T: When you two have finally finished... Go and get ready for bed!
In the meantime, complete the silhouette of a house that has been flooded.
Extra activities:
- Find out how much rain fell during last January and February where you live.
- Why do you think we measure rainfall in millimetres, when we normally measure water in litres and millilitres?
The story continues in World of Tan 18 - Soup.
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.