Fun Friday Program – Tangram Puzzles

In the school district where I work the elementary school students have a half day on the second Friday of every month.  Over winter break, I decided that this would be a perfect time to create a program for parents to bring their kids to the library!  Last month, our theme was snow and we made our own snow flake pictures using homemade puffy paint.  Check out my blog post about it! 

This month, I decided to focus on tangrams.  I figured that Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day are both covered in school, but to stick to a theme – we’re focusing on the Chinese puzzle game, tangrams.  Tangrams are a seven piece puzzle that when put together can create a square or can be placed together to create pictures.  I’m going to read them a Chinese New Year poem entitled “Celebrating Chinese New Year” from the book, Holiday Stew by Jenny Whitehead.  I’m also going to give them just a little information about the Year of the Snake from the book The Chinese Book of Animal Powers by Chungliang Al Huang.  And I’ll also share Grandfather Tang’s Story: A Tale Told with Tangrams by Ann Tompert.  I already made the tangrams, and then photocopied the pictures of each of the puzzles, so the kids can see how they work.

Then the kids get the chance to cut out their own set of seven piece tangrams and either create their own picture puzzles or try to solve some of the ones I have printed out.  I also printed out the solutions, so if the younger kids need some help they can just “copy” the puzzles.  I went to Activity Village (a UK website) where I could print tangrams and the puzzles.  It worked out perfectly because the puzzles are the same size as the pieces, making it easy to try to solve.

I’d better get going, the program starts in 45 minutes… wish me luck!  The kids are normally a little rambunctious on these half days of school!