Assemble any figure from the seven parts of a tangram. Tangram: patterns and figures

Tangram game (Chinese: “seven boards of skill” Wikipedia) is a puzzle consisting of seven flat figures that are folded in a certain way to obtain another, more complex figure (depicting a person, animal, household item, letter or number, etc. .).

Both adults and children are now fascinated by puzzle games. The tangram puzzle game helps to develop logical thinking, geometric intuition, stimulates various thought processes - comparison, generalization, sequencing, determination of “whole” - “part” relationships. All these skills are necessary for the full development of children’s brain activity.

This puzzle game is very easy to make. A square of 8 x 8 cm can be cut from various materials: cardboard, plastic. The square is cut into 7 parts. The result is 2 large, 1 medium and 2 small triangles, a square and a parallelogram. It is necessary that the parts are painted equally on both sides.

The figure that needs to be obtained is usually specified in the form of a silhouette or an external contour. When solving the puzzle, two conditions must be met: first, you must use all seven tangram shapes, and second, the shapes must not overlap each other.

For classes with young children, as a rule, diagrams are used to superimpose tangram figures. Here we want to tell you how we worked using the material .

Educational sheets with tangram patterns in this set are presented in 2 versions: color and outline. In addition, on each piece of paper there is a poem about a number and a task for fine motor skills - shading the outline of a number. The set also includes a diagram of a multi-colored tangram for making it yourself with instructions.

Color schemes for activities with young children - from 2 years old. And since we are already 3.5 years old, we have printed out and used only tangram contour diagrams.

Schemes for tangrams for children

We used this tangram pattern, printed it on thick paper, folded and glued it, and then cut the tangram square into pieces.

To download this tangram pattern for yourself, just right-click on the picture and click “Save picture as.”

As a result, we got this double-sided colored tangram.

Schemes for tangrams for children

Then we started working with patterns for tangrams - numbers.

There is a piece of paper in front of the child, I read him a poem, then he begins to shade the outline of the number.

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

After the outline of the figure is ready, he begins to lay out the figure from the parts of the tangram.

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

Then we move on to the next number, read a poem about the number 1, shade the outline of the number and move on to the tangram.

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

So sequentially we laid out all the numbers from 0 to 9, and then moved on to the sheets of paper.

This set of leaves also comes in 2 versions: color and outline, each leaf also has coloring and writing.

We chose 3 diagrams from the set: with a house, a rocket and an airplane, and the child laid them out from the details.

Schemes for tangrams for children

Schemes for tangrams for children

Schemes for tangrams for children

If you liked these leaflets - diagrams, then go to the site , there you will find many more useful educational materials for conducting activities with children at home, in kindergarten and early development schools.

And now a few more photos of how we laid out numbers from parts of the tangram. Good luck to you and your baby!

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

Schemes for tangrams for children

Schemes - numbers for tangrams for children

Schemes for tangrams for children

Schemes for tangrams for children

Didactic puzzle game "Tangram"

Does everyone know what a tangram is? This is one of the famous puzzles. She was born in China more than 3,000 years ago. From the 7 elements into which the square is divided, you can create many different objects and animal figures.
Draw a square like this on cardboard and divide it into parts. To begin, ask your child to put these pieces back together into a square. It is better if the child completes the task without looking at the drawing of the square. But if it doesn’t work out, then, of course, you can use the sample.

Real drawings of those objects, the silhouette image of which is created using a puzzle game, are very useful. In this case, it will be easier for the child to imagine the depicted object and, perhaps, create his own version. Such activities are useful in preparing children for school.
A ball of fluff -
Long ear.
Jumps deftly
Loves carrots (hare).

Assembling a tangram

According to one legend, the tangram appeared almost two and a half thousand years ago in Ancient China. The middle-aged emperor had a long-awaited son and heir. Years passed. The boy grew up healthy and smart beyond his years. But the old emperor was worried that his son, the future ruler of a huge country, did not want to study. The boy liked to play with toys more. The emperor called to himself three wise men, one of whom was known as a mathematician, another became famous as an artist, and the third was a famous philosopher, and ordered them to come up with a game, by playing with which, his son would comprehend the principles of mathematics, learn to look at the world around him with the gaze of an artist , would become patient, like a true philosopher, and would understand that complex things are often made up of simple things. And the three wise men came up with “Shi-Chao-Tyu” - a square cut into seven parts.

Parfenova Valentina Nikolaevna, kindergarten teacher

One of the components of the methodological support for the section “Elementary mathematical concepts in kindergarten” is the game “Tangram”, through which you can solve mathematical, speech and correctional problems.

The game “Tangram” is one of the simple mathematical games. The game is easy to make. A 10 by 10 cm square of cardboard or plastic, equally colored on both sides, is cut into 7 parts, which are called tans. The result is 2 large, 2 small and 1 medium triangles, a square and a parallelogram. Each child is given an envelope with 7 tanas and a sheet of cardboard on which they lay out a picture from the sample. Using all 7 tanas, tightly attaching them to one another, children create a lot of different images based on samples and according to their own ideas.

The game is interesting for both children and adults. Children are captivated by the result - they are involved in active practical activities to select a way to arrange the figures in order to create a silhouette.

The success of mastering the game in preschool age depends on the level of sensory development of children. While playing, children remember the names of geometric figures, their properties, distinctive features, examine the forms visually and tactile-motor, and freely move them in order to obtain a new figure. Children develop the ability to analyze simple images, identify geometric shapes in them and in surrounding objects, practically modify the figures by cutting them and composing them from parts.

At the first stage of mastering the game “Tangram,” a series of exercises are carried out aimed at developing children’s spatial concepts, elements of geometric imagination, and developing practical skills in composing new figures by joining one of them to another.

Children are offered different tasks: to compose figures according to a model, an oral task, or a plan. These exercises are preparatory to the second stage of mastering the game - composing figures using dissected patterns<Приложение №1 >.

To successfully recreate figures, you need the ability to visually analyze the shape of a planar figure and its parts. Children often make mistakes in connecting figures on the sides and in proportion.

This is followed by exercises in composing figures. In case of difficulties, children turn to the model. It is made in the form of a table on a sheet of paper of the same silhouette figure size as the sets of figures that children have. This makes it easier in the first lessons to analyze and check the reconstructed image with a sample<Рисунок №1>.

The third stage of mastering the game is the compilation of figures according to patterns of a contour nature, undivided<Приложение №1>. This is available to children 6-7 years old, subject to training. Games for composing figures using patterns are followed by exercises in composing images according to one’s own design.

The stages of work on introducing the game “Tangram” with children of senior preschool age with general speech underdevelopment (GSD) were as follows.

At first, the “Tangram” game was played as part of a math lesson for 5-7 minutes. Observations of children during the game confirmed the fact that the children liked the game. After this, an element of competition was introduced, and the one who posted the picture faster than others received a reward-chip.

The children were even more interested in this. They began to ask for more time to play “Tangram”. This made it possible to conduct mathematical leisure activities, quizzes, where children played for up to 20-40 minutes.

To enrich the theme of the game, there was a need to diversify this material; it was found in the magazines “Elementary School”, “Preschool Education”, in the books of Z.A. Mikhailova, T.I. Tarabarina, N.V. Elkina. and etc.

Many pictures were developed by the teacher. A number of pictures were created by children from the preparatory group. Observations of children have confirmed that this game develops mental and speech abilities in children.

There were guys diagnosed with “general speech underdevelopment,” with poor memory, a small vocabulary, and withdrawn. They played alone more often. Teachers played with these children individually and offered pictures for the whole family to play at home. The results were unexpected, the children began to level out, some faster, some slower, but they no longer lagged behind their peers in posting pictures and were even ahead of some. Having overcome their shyness and reticence, these children began to quickly master the alphabet, reading, mathematics, and left kindergarten for school with clear speech, being able to read and count well.

The next stage in complicating this game was the selection of speech material for the pictures: riddles, funny short poems, tongue twisters, tongue twisters, counting rhymes, physical exercises. In a speech therapy kindergarten, this speech material has become especially useful for children with sound pronunciation and speech disorders. While playing “Tangram”, children memorized this material, reinforced and automated sounds in tongue twisters and tongue twisters. The children's speech was enriched and their memory was trained.

While playing “Tangram,” children’s quantitative skills were strengthened. (There are 5 triangles in total, 2 large triangles, 2 small triangles, 1 medium-sized triangle. There are 7 tans in the game in total).

Children practically mastered ordinal counting. So, if we count the tans of the “Rocket” picture from top to bottom, then the square is in fifth place, small triangles are in first and fourth place, the middle triangle is in third, large triangles are in sixth and seventh place<Приложение №1 >.

By counting tanas from top to bottom, from left to right, children practice orientation on a sheet of paper.

When composing this or that picture, children compare the size of the triangles, determine the place for small, large and medium triangles in the pictures of the game “Tangram”.

Children's knowledge of geometric shapes in this game (triangle, square and quadrangle) is constantly reinforced.

By playing and rearranging small cardboard figures, children train the small muscles of their hands and fingers.

In kindergarten speech therapy groups, work is carried out on lexical and grammatical topics, within the framework of which children’s knowledge about the world around them is clarified and consolidated. Pictures for the game “Tangram” have been developed on many topics (wild and domestic animals and birds, trees, houses, furniture, toys, dishes, transport, people, family, flowers, mushrooms, insects, fish, etc.). Pictures have been developed on the topic “Wild Animals”: ​​hare, fox, wolf, bear, squirrel, lion, kangaroo<Приложение №1 >. By playing with pictures and laying them out, children learn a variety of speech material, and also reinforce and automate the sounds set by the speech therapist.

Dads often wonder: what to play with their child at home? Yes, so that the game would be beneficial for the development of the baby. Especially if this baby is already running around and chatting at the top of his lungs.

At a time when mothers love to play games to develop their child’s creative abilities (singing, drawing, sculpting with their baby), fathers are more often concerned about the logical and mathematical development of their child. So what should you play?

We offer you the “Tangram” puzzle game, which you, dear dads, can easily make for your children yourself. This game is often called a “cardboard puzzle” or “geometric construction game.” “Tangram” is one of the simple puzzles that a child from 3.5-4 years old can do, and by complicating the tasks, it can be interesting and useful for children 5-7 years old.

How to make a "Tangram"?

Making a puzzle is very simple. You need a square 8x8 cm. You can cut it out of cardboard, from smooth ceiling tiles (if left over after renovation) or from a plastic DVD movie box. The main thing is that this material is equally colored on both sides. Then the same square is cut into 7 parts. These should be: 2 large, 1 medium and 2 small triangles, a square and a parallelogram. Using all 7 parts, tightly attaching them to each other, you can create a lot of different figures based on samples and according to your own design.

How is play useful for a child?

Initially, "tangram" is a puzzle. It is aimed at developing logical, spatial and constructive thinking and intelligence.

As a result of these game exercises and tasks, the child will learn to analyze simple images, identify geometric shapes in them, visually break an entire object into parts and, conversely, compose a given model from elements.

So where to start?

Stage 1

To begin with, you can compose images from two or three elements. For example, make a square or a trapezoid from triangles. The child can be asked to count all the pieces, compare them by size, and find triangles among them.

Then you can simply put the parts next to each other and see what happens: a mushroom, a house, a Christmas tree, a bow, a candy, etc.

Stage 2

A little later, you can move on to exercises on folding figures according to a given example. In these tasks you need to use all 7 puzzle elements. It’s better to start by drawing up a hare - this is the simplest of the figures below.

Stage 3

A more difficult and interesting task for the children is to recreate images using contour samples. This exercise requires visual division of the form into its component parts, that is, into geometric shapes. Such tasks can be offered to children 5-6 years old.

This is more complicated - the figures of a person running and sitting.

These are the most difficult pieces in this puzzle. But after practice, we think your guys will be able to do them too.

Here children can collect images according to their own ideas. The picture is first conceived mentally, then the individual parts are assembled, after which the whole picture is created.

Dear dads, it is not at all necessary to spend money on expensive toys. Remember that the most expensive of all toys for a child may be those that you make for him yourself. And, of course, with whom you will play together.

More tasks with answers to the puzzle:

To organize classes, the following tools and accessories are needed: ruler, square, compass, scissors, pencil, cardboard.

- "Tangram"

"Tangram" is a simple game that will be interesting for children and adults. The success of mastering the game in preschool age depends on the level of sensory development of the child. Children should know not only the names of geometric shapes, but also their properties and distinctive features.

A square measuring 100x100 mm, covered on both sides with colored paper, is cut into 7 parts. The result is 2 large, 1 medium and 2 small triangles, a square and a parallelogram. The resulting figures are used to create various silhouettes.

Pythagoras puzzle

Cut a square measuring 7x7 cm into 7 parts. From the resulting figures, combine various silhouettes.

"Magic Circle"

The circle is cut into 10 parts. The rules of the game are the same as in other similar games: use all 10 parts to compose the silhouette, without overlapping one with the other. The cut circle should be colored equally on both sides.

Tangram (Chinese: 七巧板, pinyin qī qiǎo bǎn, lit. “seven tablets of mastery”) is a puzzle consisting of seven flat figures that are folded in a certain way to obtain another, more complex figure (depicting a person, an animal, a household item, letter or number, etc.). The figure that needs to be obtained is usually specified in the form of a silhouette or an external contour. When solving the puzzle, two conditions must be met: first, you must use all seven tangram shapes, and second, the shapes must not overlap each other.

Figures

The dimensions are given relative to a large square, the sides and area of ​​which are taken equal to 1.

5 right triangles

· 2 small ones (with hypotenuse, equal and legs)

1 middle (hypotenuse and legs)

· 2 large (hypotenuse and legs)

1 square (with side)

1 parallelogram (with sides and and angles and)

Among these seven parts, the parallelogram is distinguished by its lack of mirror symmetry (it has only rotational symmetry), so that its mirror image can only be obtained by turning it over. This is the only part of the tangram that needs to be turned over to form certain shapes. When using a one-sided set (in which the pieces are not allowed to be flipped), there are pieces that can be folded, while their mirror image cannot.

Pedagogical significance of tangram

Promotes the development in children of the ability to play according to the rules and follow instructions, visual-figurative thinking, imagination, attention, understanding of color, size and shape, perception, combinatorial abilities.

The author of the book, known to many readers for his appearances in the press about raising children, talks about his experience of using educational games in his family, which allow him to successfully solve the problem of developing a child’s creative abilities.

The book contains a description of games that are a kind of “mental gymnastics”, a detailed description of the methodology for conducting them and the method of making them.

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1. WHAT ARE DEVELOPMENTAL GAMES?

Educational games by Nikitin. Golden mean. Creators and performers. What kind of games does Nikitin have? How many games should you have? "Monkey"

CHAPTER 2. GAME “FOLD THE PATTERN”

When and how to start. Drawing tasks. Errors, help and tips. Not just patterns. Same, not the same. Same color. Dimensions. Check. One, many, several. Counting in order. More, less, equally. As many. Guess how much. Count down. Composition of numbers. Let's meet ten. Let's get acquainted with the numbers. Plus, minus, equal. Make-believe. We divide equally. Hide and seek with the score. We train and remember. Orientation in space. Paths and houses. Dictation with cubes. We are looking for treasure. Sequences. What changed? As it was? Perimeter and area. Figures and their sides. Getting to know the perimeter. Getting to know the square. Both perimeter and area. Combinatorics. Symmetry.

CHAPTER 3. MONTESSORI FRAMEWORKS AND INSERTS

Introduction to the game. We learn to close the “windows”. We close the “windows” ourselves. We draw frames and learn to paint. We draw frames and play. We outline the liners. Let's paint it over. Shading. “Recognize the figure by touch.” Insert by touch. Sort it out. Compare. Matches. "Beads." "House". We train attentiveness.

CHAPTER 4. “UNICUBE”, “FOLD A SQUARE” AND OTHER GAME SETS “Unicube”. "Fold a square."

Color, shape, size. Find similar. Angles. Length. What does it look like? Let's play Monkey. "Find the mistake." Draw with figures. Small copy. Initial geometry. Fill in the silhouette. What changed? As it was? Symmetry. "Bricks". "Cubes for everyone."

CHAPTER 5. NOW ATTENTION! "Attention". "Attention! Guess what?

CHAPTER 6. PLANS AND MAPS

Puppet plans. Room and apartment plan. Plan for the little ones. Plan of the surrounding area. My city. Games with real geographical maps. Games with a map hanging on the wall. Games with a card lying on the floor. Map in pieces. Travel games. Game "I know!" Guess what it is?

CHAPTER 7. WHAT TIME IS IT?

Getting to know the clock. Half an hour. How much was it? Five minutes. How to say? Schedule.

CHAPTER 8. MATHEMATICS WITH NIKITIN GAMES

"Fractions." We play with circles. Same and different. Big and small. From big to small. Let's play Monkey. As it was? Learning to count. Equally. Composition of numbers. Let's get acquainted with fractions. Numerator and denominator. From writing down numbers to counting in your head. Which part is colored? How much is missing? Whole and half. Compare fractions. Not just fractions. And again symmetry. "THERMOMETER" AND "NODES"

BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDICES.

The text of the book itself occupies 104 pages. The rest of the appendix book is materials for games. Below are photos of individual pages of the book. For example, a page from the chapter “fold a pattern” and a page from the appendix to this game.

Photo of a couple of pages from the chapters “fractions” and “Montessori frames and inserts”

If you evaluate the book by content and style of presentation, I personally would give it a “5+”.

As can be seen from the content, the book discusses techniques for playing Nikitin games. Before purchasing this book, I already had Nikitin’s book “Intellectual Games”. Then I thought, is there still a need for a book if there is a primary source. Having bought the book, I answered myself unequivocally “yes”, because...

1. The book examines not only the games recommended by Nikitin, but also other games invented by Lena Danilova. It turns out that, having several games, you can play for a long time and in a variety of ways.

2. Applications are very useful. We ourselves have so far only used the applications for the “fold the pattern” game. It’s not so easy to start making Nikitin’s patterns right away. The appendix provides examples of drawings, starting with one cube and then increasing in complexity. There are applications for other games as well.

3. The book gives recommendations on how to interest a child if you can’t play right away (general recommendations are also given for specific games). Not all children want to play by the rules, and not all children are ready to show interest only at the sight of a new game; parents of such children will find a lot of useful advice in the book.

Tangram in Chinese literally means "seven planks of skill." It is believed that this is one of the oldest puzzles in the history of human civilization, although this intellectual game was first mentioned in a Chinese book during the reign of the seventh Manchu emperor of the Qing state, who ruled under the motto “Jiaqing - The Beautiful and Joyful.” And the word “tangram” first appeared in the European lexicon in 1848 in the brochure “Puzzles for Teaching Geometry” written by Thomas Hill, later president of Harvard University.

Considered a classic tangram, it consists of seven flat geometric shapes - two large, one medium and two small triangles, a square and a parallelogram. These figures are folded to form another, more complex figure. Often these figures depict a person in various movements, some animal or object, a letter or number. The figure that needs to be folded is given in the form of a silhouette or outline, and the task is to find a solution to how to place the geometric figures included in the tangram to get the desired result.

When finding a Tangram solution, two conditions must be met: first, all seven tangram figures must be used, and second, the figures must not overlap each other (superimpose each other).

As you can see from history, very respected and intelligent people considered such a very simple-looking game to be a way of developing intelligence worthy of the closest attention. Try it too - buy a tangram and fold several figures from these seven polygons.

In addition to this type, there are other types of tangrams. They are all interesting and fun to find a solution. Try it yourself.

Puzzle "Tangram"

One of the most famous tangram fans is considered to be the world famous writer and mathematician Lewis Carroll, the same one to whom humanity owes the appearance of the various adventures of the girl Alice. He loved the game and often suggested problems to his friends from a Chinese book he owned with 323 problems.

He also wrote the book “Fashionable Chinese Puzzle,” in which he argued that Napoleon Bonaparte, after his defeat and imprisonment on St. Helena Island, spent time playing the tangram “exercising his patience and resourcefulness.” He had a classic ivory set of this logic game and a book with problems. Confirmation of this activity of Napoleon is in Jerry Slocum’s book “The Tangram Book”.

An equally famous person who liked to think about putting together a puzzle of seven separate figures was Edgar Allan Poe. This popular writer of detective stories with interesting plots often solved problems of the Tangram puzzle.

We talked about only a few famous personalities who were passionate about this interesting logic game. We hope that buying the Tangram puzzle will now be more interesting. It is worth adding that the great variety of possible shapes from the seven geometric shapes is amazing - there are several thousand of them. Perhaps you can add a few more to them.

Tangram puzzle "Stomachion"(Archimedes' game)

The great thinker and mathematician Archimedes mentions this logical problem in his work, which is now called the Palimpsest of Archimedes. It contains the treatise of the same name “Stomachion”, which talks about such a concept as absolute infinity, as well as combinatorics and mathematical physics. About everything that in our modern era is an important section of computer science.

It is believed that Archimedes made attempts to find out the number of combinations with which it is possible to add up a perfect square from 14 segments. And only in 2003, with the help of a specially developed computer program, the American Bill Butler was able to calculate all possible solutions. The mathematician came to the conclusion that this game has a total of 17,152 combinations, and given that the square cannot rotate and cannot have a mirror image, then there are “only” 536 options.

The puzzle game "Stomachion" is very similar to tangram and the main difference is the number and shape of the elements from which it consists. For all its simplicity, this logic game is worthy of attention. The ancient Greeks and Arabs placed great importance on challenges and learning through it.

In addition to the task of finding 536 variants of the ideal Archimedes square, this logic game offers you to add different shapes from the 14 geometric shapes that make it up. Try to put together the figures of humans, animals and objects. This is actually not a simple task as it might seem at first glance. The rules are simple: all elements of the Stomachion puzzle can be turned in any direction and all of them must be used.

Geometric puzzle games are very useful for developing children's spatial concepts, constructive thinking, logic, imagination and intelligence. One such game is the ancient Chinese game Tangram.

Photo © Algodoo

What mystery lies in this game?

Origin of the game

The game was born in China more than 3000 years ago. Although the word "Tangram" was coined just over a century ago in North America, the Chinese game was known as the "seven piece board of wisdom."

According to one legend, the Great Dragon, who lived among people, entered into battle with the Thunder God. And the God of Thunder cut the sky with an ax into 7 pieces, which fell to the ground. The pieces were so black that they absorbed all the light on earth, thereby destroying the shapes of all objects. The dragon, saddened by such a tragedy, took these seven pieces and began to build various forms and creatures, starting with humans, animals and plants.

Another legend tells of a monk who instructed his disciples to travel by painting the varied beauty of the world on ceramic tiles. But one day the tile fell and broke into 7 pieces. The students tried for seven days to assemble the tiles into a square, but were unsuccessful. And then they decided: the beauty and diversity of the world can be composed of these seven parts.

What is the game?

The puzzle consists of seven geometric figures by dissecting a square:

2 large right triangles

1 medium right triangle

2 small right triangles

1 square

1 parallelogram

Each of these parts is called Tang (Chinese for "part").

These figures are used to create a variety of situations. The game has 1600 possible solutions, which include a wide variety of animals and humans, objects and geometric shapes.

As with other puzzles, tangrams can be solved alone, or you can compete with other players.

How to play Tangram?

Draw a square on cardboard and divide it into parts. It is better to use double-sided colored cardboard. If you don’t have one, take regular colored cardboard, glue it with the wrong side and cut out the shapes. This will make the details more dense. Make several of these sets in different colors.

To begin, ask your child to put these pieces back together into a square. It is better if the child completes the task without looking at the drawing of the square. But if that doesn’t work, you can use the sample.

When laying out figures, it is easier for a child to use samples with drawn components. Outline patterns are more difficult to reproduce.

On a note

A tangram can be cut from a sheet of soft magnet (magnetic tape). An excellent option would be to take sheets of different colors. Then you can assemble the tangram directly on the refrigerator.

The following rules must be observed when playing

1. when composing images, all seven figures are used;
2. the figures must be in the same plane, i.e. should not overlap each other or be placed on top of other parts;
3. all parts must be adjacent, i.e. have a point of contact with other parts.

Real drawings of those objects, the silhouette image of which is created using a puzzle game, are very useful. In this case, it will be easier for the child to imagine the depicted object and, perhaps, create his own version. Such activities are very useful in preparing children for school.

Video taken from youtube.com
User WwwIgrovedRu

Source of diagrams: walls360.com

To develop a child’s thinking and imagination, you can use various means and methods, one of which is the tangram game. You can start working with such a fun and useful puzzle in preschool age. Children will find it interesting to put together a house, fish or cat from simple figures, and colorful diagrams will help them avoid making mistakes.

What it is?

The puzzle itself came to us from ancient China, and the fact that it is over a thousand years old suggests that it is fascinating and useful. The word, somewhat unusual for Russian speakers, translated from Chinese means “seven tablets of mastery.”

The essence of the game is simple: from seven geometric figures on a plane you need to build something specified by the diagram. This could be a figurine of a person or animal, plants, some household items, toys, and older preschoolers can be asked to build numbers and letters.

The composition of the set is as follows:

• triangles (there are five of them) vary in size - two large and small, one medium;
• parallelogram;
• square.

Interestingly, if you add the elements in a certain sequence, you get a square. You can buy a ready-made puzzle, or even more interesting, make it yourself from thick cardboard, painted in different colors, so it will be easier for your child to navigate the diagrams.

Freedom of creativity is limited by two simple rules - one element cannot be superimposed on another, and all of them must be involved in the construction.

Brief history of the technique

Legend has it that a certain Chinese emperor began to use the tangram for the first time, who was very worried that his future heir did not show due interest in the learning process. Then the monarch called for help from three wise men - a mathematician, an artist and a philosopher, who together came up with the magic square. Thanks to it, you can perform a huge number of tasks. And the capricious prince finally began to study.

It is known that even Napoleon at one time was engaged in folding tangram figures.

About the benefits

Exercises with a puzzle are certainly useful for preschool children, since in an unobtrusive form they develop useful skills:

• teach spatial thinking;
• form and consolidate the concepts of color and shape;
• improve attention and imagination;
• develop the ability to “read” an instruction diagram;
• learn to visually divide an entire object into parts;
• help the development of fine motor skills, since children fold the figures on the table using their fingers.

The goal of such training is to improve the child’s thinking. At the same time, the variety of schemes helps maintain interest.

Variety of tasks

Tangram for preschoolers is a fun and useful activity that can be started from the age of 4-5. First, the kids get acquainted with a new set, study its elements, find a triangle according to their parents’ instructions, and show which one is big and which one is small. Next, adults print out the diagram in full size, asking the little ones to put the elements on the drawing. These can be houses, animals, birds, fish, a Christmas tree, a man.

Gradually, the tasks become more complicated, children are offered a hint diagram, which in size may no longer correspond to the real “dimensions” of the figures, and a task to fold something, for example a bird.

Children, as a rule, also become interested in the fact that from a specific number of elements several varieties of birds can be added.

To prevent preschoolers from getting bored, you should come up with a plot - for example, write a fairy tale about animals who would like to live in a house. In order for each of them to occupy their own “room”, you need to assemble the beast from puzzle elements. Next, preschoolers are offered the following scheme:

They make a cat, a hare, a horse, a fish, a duck, a dog. We can “plant” a spruce next to the house to make it beautiful (its diagram is also presented above). Finally, a man built a dwelling for the menagerie - his figure is also on the diagram.

You shouldn’t torment your child with numerous collections of animals; for one lesson 2-3 are enough; the next day you can continue “populating”.

Cat lovers can be invited to compose these animals from puzzle elements according to the following schemes:

The setting is something like this: today is cat day, let's try to collect as many different species as possible. Or another option: a cat came to visit us and told us a lot of new things about her relatives. Let's show her how we can collect cats.

Also very interesting are the houses, of which a huge variety can be made from tangram elements:

Together with the child, you should discuss what kind of house he would like to build, for example, for his pets, and then offer him to work. If something doesn’t work out, don’t be nervous and yell at your child, such an attitude will only destroy his desire to understand the secrets of the Chinese puzzle. It’s best to help, hold, praise for your efforts, then the result will come very soon.

When working with tangram, it is important to use a playful element, to come up with fairy tales and exciting stories. Otherwise, the baby will quickly get bored and will study through force. Therefore, it is better to tell him about the magic square, which, at the behest of the good sorceress, split into several fragments, from which literally anything can be created. But the sorceress needs an assistant, so the child is temporarily endowed with miraculous powers, and according to the magic book (drawings and diagrams), he will populate the fictional kingdom with various inhabitants, build houses, boats, Christmas trees, etc. there.

Tangram is a great mental workout that will help you have fun and reinforce useful skills. Among the huge number of schemes, you can find those that will appeal to every preschooler.