Teach Math with Tangrams! – Build strong STEM Skills

It has been researched that if you gave a child no other math instruction bar Tangrams for one whole year, they would still be more advanced mathematically than if you followed the regular maths curriculum!

While most parents will not really want to take up this experiment, the benefits of tangrams are multiple.

The tangram in Chinese literally means “seven boards of skill”. It is a dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes.

Arranged correctly, the shapes can be fitted together as a large square, rectangle, or triangle. They can also be arranged in a variety of complex shapes.

There are many ways to play with tangrams. The simplest way is to let kids create their own complex shapes. But traditionally, tangrams are treated as puzzles. The player is shown a target shape (in outline, or silhouette only) and then asked to recreate that shape using the seven pieces.

So kids can be given shapes and asked: how would they look if you stuck them together? Rotated them? Slid them around into different positions?

Experiments suggest that thinking about such things — visualizing the spatial relationships between shapes in your “mind’s eye” — can boost visual-spatial skills and mathematics too.

A STEM toy, playing with tangrams will help kids

• classify shapes

• learn about geometry, fractions, perimeter

• gain a stronger grasp of spatial relationships

• hone spatial rotation skills

• acquire a precise vocabulary for manipulating shapes (e.g., “flip,” “rotate”)

An easy way to incorporate Tangrams into your child’s day is to make up a Tangram box at the table and give your child the option of solving a Tangram puzzle while waiting for meals.

Tangrams present a new fun interesting hand on way of learning STEM concepts. By using the tangram kids learn thru open ended exploration that just by merging the three basic shapes, triangle, square and parallelogram – one can fit together and form various shapes and figures such as animals, birds, sea creatures and people.

Tangrams are also a good way to promote divergent thinking while coming up with own designs. Both geometric and artistic in nature, tangrams has not only mathematical benefits but art benefits as well.