Visual Spatial Thinking with Tangrams

First graders began exploring tangram puzzles this week! We read a story from the Primary Education Thinking Skills curriculum about a character named Max the Magician. Max is really good at using his visual spatial thinking skills to manipulate shapes.

As we read the stories, students tried to make different characters and places from the story using their tangrams. Students had to reason about the size of a shape as well as rotate and flip the shape to make the puzzle. They got so excited when they figured it out!

After we finished the story, students got to play a little more. This time, the puzzles they were trying to make didn't have the outline of the shapes. While a little more difficult, student persevered and were able to replicate some of the puzzles.