Tangrams and Math

When I first read about this book at Leah’s, Almost Unschoolers, I knew I had to look for it, especially since Selena loves her pattern blocks. I grabbed the book which I had to find, since Selena had already taken to her bedroom for a night time read. I will say this book is not one that Selena is able to read word for word independently as it is beyond her reading level, but the illustrations were intriguing and led to many made up stories from her.

I used wax paper to copy the seven shapes in the back of the book, then cut them out of yellow construction paper. The first thing Selena did when we sat down to read the book was to ask to make a cat out of the shapes. Well, believe it or not the first little pig did just that made a pig out of his 7 magic shapes.

She was really pretty intrigued to see that we could actually make a cat from the shapes. The rest of the shapes we made right from the story were a candle and a house.

Though we have always read the version of The Three Little Pigs where the pigs all find safety in the brick house, this book started out that the wolf ate the first two pigs. Selena looked kind of odd, but didn’t seem phased by it, her interest immediately went to the tangrams that were set before her.

After we were finished, Selena continued to look through the book and try to make some of the different things in the book. She really had a lot of fun with this activity, and I hope she has learned even more of an appreciation for her pattern blocks.

I am linking up at Joyful Learner’s Math Links.