ℹ️ The article is from TheBrainyMommy.com and was written by The Brainy Mommy.
Amazing food, festive decorations, time with family, and cultural customs – what is your favorite part of Chinese New Year? Growing up, mine was assembling the candies and other goodies in our Tray of Togetherness and reading the Chinese zodiac horoscopes.
To celebrate the lunar new year, I was inspired to create a themed puzzle. Twelve tangram puzzles, in fact – one for each animal of the Chinese zodiac. See if you can recreate all twelve animals!
Chinese Zodiac Tangram Puzzles
Overview
Make the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac using tangrams.
Materials
Skills
- Visual-spatial awareness
- Logical and perceptual reasoning
- Math skills – geometric shapes, congruency, transformations
Modify or extend the activity
- For younger kids, take your time as you prep the activity: encourage kids to cut out the tans (the 7 tangram pieces) themselves, name the shapes (triangles, square, parallelogram), compare their sizes, number of sides and angles.
- Begin by asking your child to try reassembling the tans back into a square. Discuss the types of manipulations you can make (rotating, sliding, flipping). Talk about the rules of the puzzle – that all the pieces must be used, that they can’t lay on top of each other, but the edges have to touch.
- I’ve built in different levels of difficulty right into the printable. Use the beginner set for younger kids – they simply have to match the correct pieces to the template. Use the intermediate and advanced set for those who are ready to attempt to recreate the image looking at just the silhouette.
- Encourage free play and creativity with the tans – see what other designs your child is able to make. You can also challenge each other to make different designs (e.g. a boat, house, a favourite animal).
More Chinese New Year Activities
Here are a few other activities I’m excited to try with my son this year.
Putting together our Tray of Togetherness
Crafting these beautiful paper lanterns
Making this Coconut Rice Cake
Diving into a few Lunar New Year story books
Despite how different our gatherings and festivities are going to look this year, I’m going to try to find ways to maintain and incorporate some new traditions. Wishing you and your loved ones good health, prosperity, and a happy lunar new year!
Source: TheBrainyMommy.com
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Last Updated on August 28, 2024 by Tania Nizova | Published: August 27, 2024
Mom of 3-year-old superhero Michael and 7-year-old princess Stasia. 👩👧👦
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