World of Tan 3 - Mah Ling
This activity follows on from World of Tan 2 - Little Ming.
Good morning, this is Granma T's Removals, Mah Ling speaking. How can I help you?
Oh! You want to know who I am? I'm the personal assistant to Granma T. I run her office, make all the necessary arrangements, manage the workers and do all the accounts. I also keep an eye on those two mischievous scamps, Little Ming and Little Fung, though they are not so little any more!
How old am I? Well, I'm more than three times the age of Little Ming, but I'm the second oldest person here. Numerically, my age is one more than a prime number. My age has eight divisors and three prime factors. So there!
Anyway, that's enough about me. I'll get Granma T to speak to you... please hold...
In the meantime, complete the silhouette of Mah Ling.
- Use the information in the story to work out how old Mah Ling is.
The story continues in World of Tan 4 - Monday Morning.
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?