A tangram is an ancient Chinese puzzle consisting of seven shapes: two large triangles, one medium triangle, two small triangles, one square and one parallelogram. You can create hundreds of designs with these shapes, from a basic square to animals and letters of the alphabet. Tangrams are not only fun to play with, they are an excellent tool for learning about logical thinking and relationships between shapes.
Place the small square in the lower right corner of your work space so that the edge of the square is parallel with the edge of the table.
Place one small triangle so that a short side is touching the left edge of the square and the 90 degree angle is in the bottom center of the large square you are making.
Place the large triangle so that its longest side forms the left edge of your large square.
Place the parallelogram next to the large triangle so that a short side is aligned with the top of the square and a long side is touching the exposed short side of the large triangle.
Place the remaining small triangle so that its longest side is lined up with the long side of the parallelogram. This forms the top right corner of the large square.
Tips
There are other ways to make squares from a set of tangram pieces. Experiment and see how many other ways you can discover. You can make many other shapes with a tangram, including airplanes, animals and letters of the alphabet. Experiment and see what shapes you can create.
Warnings
Be careful not to lose any of the pieces of your tangram. Many of the pictures you can make require all seven pieces.