Hands On!: Tangrams

Seven is a special number. Seven colors in the rainbow spectrum. There are seven days in a week. Seven wonders of the ancient world. Seven continents. The seven seas. There are seven letters in the word tangram. And there are seven pieces in a tangram puzzle.

Tangrams are an ancient set of Chinese moving puzzle pieces that today entertain and challenge people across the globe. Dating back to well before the 1800’s, these seven simple shapes or “Tans” come together to form hundreds of different figures with multiple solutions. The puzzle consists of two large triangles, one medium triangle, two small triangles, one square and one rhomboid. The seven pieces of a geometric tangram can be arranged in many different ways to make figures of many kinds. Tangrams have been used in classrooms around the world for generations to help teach basic math ideas. An all time classic puzzle that has a universal appeal to young and old, the serious and the light-hearted. Tangrams help to develop positive attitudes towards geometry, promote an understanding of basic geometric shapes and interaction and further shape recognition and organization skills. Using innovative touch screen functionality to test your perceptual proficiency, Hands-On! Tangrams brings manipulative puzzle solving to your Nintendo DS!