Tangrams can help students learn about fractions, decimals, percentages, and ratios. Check out these resources for ideas and activities:
- Resource Area for Teaching’s “Tangram Tactics!” combines cutting out a set of tans with discovering fractions, decimals, and percentages.https://raft.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/613-Tangram-Tactics.pdf
- In Hand2Mind’s “Fraction Spin” activity, students identify a tan as a fractional part of a whole shape. Then they construct the whole shape. https://www.hand2mind.com/glossary-of-hands-on-manipulatives/tangrams OR https://images.salsify.com/image/upload/s–3OYzHs2C–/i5spveqbkw0qjlfvvunr
- In Hand2Mind’s “Square Cover-Up” activity, students cover a grid with tans and find the percent of the grid that is covered. https://www.hand2mind.com/glossary-of-hands-on-manipulatives/tangrams OR https://images.salsify.com/image/upload/s–9Bo87qxt–/r4uvq4ixmrndzfk5bhbg
- In Hand2Mind’s “The More, the Better” activity, students search for convex shapes that can be made with different numbers of pieces that represent the same fractional part of the seven-piece tangram square. https://www.hand2mind.com/glossary-of-hands-on-manipulatives/tangrams OR https://images.salsify.com/image/upload/s–gWH3xZVc–/q8xtgvevtnwgorc3crzm
- Xiaoxi Tian’s “The Art and Mathematics of Tangrams” discusses thirteen convex polygons in three difficulty levels using tangrams. https://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2012/bridges2012-553.pdf OR https://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2012/bridges2012-553.html#gsc.tab=0
- The lesson “Exploration Geometry: Hands-On Transformations” by Lindsey Herlehy, David Hernandez, and Karen Togliatti teaches transformations as well as areas and ratios. Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. Professional Learning Day. March 4, 2016. https://digitalcommons.imsa.edu/proflearningday/2016/STEM/25/
- Deanna Rigdon, Jolyn Raleigh, and Shari Goodman suggest activities for Grades 5-6 that involve polygons, fractions, and cutting a pan of brownies in “Tackling Tangrams.” Teaching Children Mathematics, Vol. 6, No. 5 (January 2000), pp. 304-305. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41197425