Tangrams is an ancient art. The story goes that this form of recreation has never been improved upon since the legendary Chinese Tan first conceived of it. In Chinese this puzzle is called ch'i ch'iao t'u. This translates to 'ingenious-puzzle figure of seven pieces'. Lewis Carroll was reputed to have been a great fan of tangrams. He is said to have had in his possession a Chinese book made of tissue paper which had 323 tangram designs in it. Whatever the origins, this excellent puzzle game is still widely used today. To play you simply need to rearrange the seven forms to exactly reproduce the given image. These images are either geometric in nature or patterned after a familiar object. It is not as easy as it first appears. This is an excellent exercise in spatial coordination and being able to discern the whole from its randomly scattered parts. This develops spatial pattern recognition.

If you click the button below, the tangram applet will open.

To move the pieces, drag them with the mouse. To rotate pieces, click with the right mouse button.

There are a number of designs you can match by moving the pieces around.

When you have mastered the predesigned patterns, you can make up your own.

Good Luck!