Tangram Love

David loves tangrams.  I love them, too!

He pulls these out all the time.

And he delights in manipulating the colorful shapes to make pictures and designs.

Sometimes he works with complex shape cards.
And sometimes he free creates pictures on the taple top.

Remember these from your childhood!?
They are so much fun.
And while David is busy designing, I know that his little math mind is working really hard.

He is developing geometry vocabulary and shape identification
He is learning to classify shapes with multiple attributes.
He is experimenting with and learning about the properties and component parts of geomentric shapes.
He is expereincing the manipulation of spatial relationships.
He is being creative and artistic
He is using logic to find solutions to complex puzzles.

I LOVE how preschool play has TREMENDOUS purpose.

And research supports the fact that children who have a hands on conceptual knowledge of complex math concepts do better when those same concepts are studied symbolically (with numbers and symbols. . .like big brother Peter has in his math book).

So get out that old set of tanagrams, or print some off the internet and laminate for hours of fun, hands on math!!!