Start by making a square piece of paper. To start making the square, fold one corner of a piece of paper over to the adjacent side To finish making the square, cut off the small rectangle, forming a square Fold the square piece of paper in half, then in half again (making a square that is divided into quarters). Repeat this step (resulting in a square divided into sixteenths). Unfold the paper. Draw lines along the red lines marked at the left. Cut along these lines. You will now have seven pieces: a small square, two small isosceles triangles, a medium-sized isosceles triangle, two large isosceles triangles, and a parallelogram. {An isosceles triangle has two equal angles and two equal sides. A parallelogram is a four-sided figure with each side parallel to the opposite side.} You can arrange these seven pieces into an incredible number of shapes, making animals, people, everyday objects, etc. See how many you can make - invent new ones!
Requirements
Paper (cardstock or other thick paper works well) Scissors Ruler and Pencil or a Printer
Objective
Tangram is an ancient Chinese puzzle. This activity is sometimes called "seven pieces of cleverness." The object of the puzzle is to rearrange the pieces of a square (the puzzle pieces) to form figures (like a picture of a cat) using the tangram pieces.
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