World of Tan 5 - Dragon
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outline of the dragon?
Age
7 to 11
Challenge level
This activity follows on from World of Tan 4 - Monday Morning.
All is quiet in the removal yard at Granma T's, and the storage bays are safely locked up. However, inside the house there is frantic activity. The children are making new paper pictures of the Kitchen God to stick behind the cooker. Granma T is cutting out pictures of the Guardian of the Gates to stick on the doors.
The reason for all the excitement is that the New Year approaches. The workers and Mah Ling have returned home to celebrate this important occasion with their own families. No business will take place for the rest of the week and the yard will remain closed.
The Year of the Dragon (a special year for Little Ming) approaches, while the Year of the Rabbit is closing. The Dragon likes to be left alone, objects to change and is fond of the night. At midnight the children will bow before Granma T and the New Year will be let in with fireworks and the burning of incense.
These special celebrations will continue until the Festival of Lanterns in a few days' time, when more fireworks will be set off and lanterns of all shapes and sizes will decorate the buildings.
In the meantime, complete the silhouette of the dragon.
Extra activity:
- After the Year of the Dragon it will be the Year of the Snake! Use the tangram to design a snake for Little Fung. Then sit back-to-back with a friend and give them instructions for how to make your snake design. How similar is their design to yours?
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?