Title of Book:
Author:
Publisher/Year:
ISBN:
Grandfather Tang’s Story
Ann Tompert
Dragonfly Books/1990
978-0-517-88558-1
Grade Levels for Recommended Use: 4th grade
TEKS:
4(b) Knowledge and skills.
(9) Geometry and spatial reasoning. The student connects transformations to congruence
and symmetry. The student is expected to: (A) demonstrate translations, reflections, and
rotations using concrete models;
Brief Summary:
Grandfather Tang’s Story is about fox fairies which are very important in Chinese
folklore. Little Soo, the granddaughter, listens and watches her Grandfather Tang move
tangrams around to make animal shapes while he tells her a story about shape-changing
fox fairies. Each animal puzzle for tangrams is shown in the book as you read along.
Materials needed:
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Grandfather Tang’s Story
Document Camera
Tangrams (class set)
Suggested Activity:
1. Introduce geometry vocabulary words: translation, reflections, and rotations
Translation – a change in the position of a figure that moves it up, down sideways.
Reflections – Gives its mirror image.
Rotations – Moves a figure about a point.
2. Read Grandfather Tang’s Story placing it under a document camera to show the
pictures of the animals that are made out of tangrams (cover it with an index card).
3. When you have finished reading the page remove the index card from the story and
have the students use their tangrams to make the same picture.
4. Continue this pattern throughout the story, checking the students to see if they have
done it correctly.
References: (extension to lesson – uses more tangrams)
http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=xeeb7acfb1f9349eebdb151106f50ad62
Adapted by: Valerie Dykes (2011)