What are Tangrams?

If you’ve never heard of tangrams they are an ancient Chinese puzzle that consist of 7 tans, or shapes:

• a small square
• two congruent triangles
• two large congruent triangles
• a medium size triangle
• a parallelogram

You can make numerous geometric pictures using tangrams. You must follow the basic rules of using all 7 pieces; they must lie flat; all pieces must touch; and no pieces may overlap. Pieces may be rotated and/or flipped to form the desired shape. You can also solve more difficult tangram puzzles by trying to figure out where to place the right geometric shapes to make a particualr solid figure.

How to Make Tangrams From Felt:

Most felt sheets come as rectangles. So the first step of making your own set of tangrams is to make a square out of your rectangle felt piece. You can easily make a perfect square by folding one corner over to the edge.

Cut off the extra piece of rectangle to reveal your square.

Divide the square into two congruent triangles by folding it in half diagonally and cutting into two. If  the felt slips on you, then you may want to paper clip each side while you cut. Or, just use a ruler to draw a straight line down the fold for exact cutting.

Now you should have two large triangles.

Fold one triangle in half. Cut the triangle along the fold into two smaller triangles. Felt will stretch some so just keep that in mind.

With the opposite large triangle,  mark half way across the long side. Make a good crease and mark line across for cutting or insert scissors into fold and cut along the edge while the tip is paper clipped to the opposite edge.

You just made the medium triangle by cutting off the top.

Fold the remaining trapezoid in half and cut along the fold.

 On one half of the trapezoid fold the edge to make a triangle and a square and cut on the fold. This produces the small triangle and the  small square.

With the other half trapezoid, fold down a corner to make a triangle and a parallelogram. Cut on the fold.

Now you have made a felt tangram that you can use with a felt board. If you don’t have one, they are easily constructed and can be made by attaching felt to stiff cardboard backing. You can also use old bulletin boards or chalkboards covered with felt.

Now, it’s time to do some story telling with Tangrams!

Art Around the Ancient World- the line up:

The following lists each lesson by civilization, what each lesson’s focus will be, and the media/project tutorial.

• Prehistory– Cave Paintings– Painting the Ancient Way
• Sumerians – Ancient Writing -Cylinder Seals in Clay
• Egyptians – Egyptian Art – Text as Texture/ Egyptian Headdress
• Assyrians and Babylonians -Near East Metalworking –  Babylonian Art Lesson for Kids
• Phoenicians– Ancient Dyes– Purple Batik Cloths
• Hittites and Ancient Israel– TBA
• Ancient Africa– Akuaba Wooden Doll– African Scratch Art
• Minoan and Mycenaean-Greek Mythology Masks-MinotaurPaper Mache Masks
• Persians– Persian Carpets and Decor- Paper Weaving Project
• Ancient China- Tangrams- (YOU ARE HERE)
• Ancient Greece– Pythagorus – Tessellating Jars
• India- Spice JarLayer Art
• Rome- Mosaics

The post How to Make Tangrams for a Felt Board appeared first on Dymphna's Song.

 Geography Through Living Stories

Every week we would read a living book that I selected for the civilization we were learning about. I gave a brief history lesson and then we took a look at our map and talked about the civilization at that time in history as well as about the modern nation that exists there today.  Then we would do our art project and at the very end the children would get a stamp on their geography passports!

I think geography is one of those subjects that you can study with intention, but that you can also work into your program without having to buy a text or workbook. Integrating several subjects this way offers your child a base of information from which they can build on.  So the next time they read about Egypt or Mesopotamia, they will remember the funny story you read or art project they did with that study and have something for which they can build additional knowledge on.

In the same way, you can have your child map where their reader take place or use an atlas to gain more information about a location’s people. We’ve been using our National Geographic Student Atlas of the World (Third Edition). You can see my full review on The Curriculum Choice. But there is a 4th edition now available, so if you’re buying new I’d recommend it as it may be more updated.

The way we study geography in our homeschool is pretty natural and often integrated with many topics of study and not just in history but in literature too!

I designed the whole Living Stories program I created to correlate with The Story of the World: Vol. 1 because that’s what Mechanical man and I have been using in our homeschool this year. This way we could also benefit from the course at home. I usually read the living books with him along with the chapter they complemented in SOTW. I did the same with the art lessons. You can learn more about how this program follows SOTW by following the Art Around the World Series!

Art Around the Ancient World- the line up:

The following lists each lesson by civilization, what each lesson’s focus will be, and the media/project tutorial.

• Prehistory– Cave Paintings– Painting the Ancient Way
• Sumerians – Ancient Writing -Cylinder Seals in Clay
• Egyptians – Egyptian Art – Text as Texture/ Egyptian Headdress
• Assyrians and Babylonians -Near East Metalworking –  Babylonian Art Lesson for Kids
• Phoenicians– Ancient Dyes– Purple Batik Cloths
• Hittites and Ancient Israel– TBA
• Ancient Africa– Akuaba Wooden Doll– African Scratch Art
• Minoan and Mycenaean-Greek Mythology Masks-MinotaurPaper Mache Masks
• Persians– Persian Carpets and Decor- Paper Weaving Project
• Ancient China- Tangrams
• Ancient Greece– Pythagorus – Tessellating Jars
• India- Spice JarLayer Art
• Rome- Mosaics

The post Geography Through Living Stories appeared first on Dymphna's Song.

This was a simple and easy art lesson for The Legend of the Persian Carpet by Tomie dePaola. The kids liked it and it can be done easily with all ages down to kindergarten.

For materials you will need:

• Colorful card stock or sturdy paper. You can also use construction paper if it’s what you have.
• Paper cutter to cut strips 1/4 ‘ thick. You can use scissors but it takes longer. You must cut them longer than the cardboard base.
• Scissors and stapler
• Cardboard. Use the size and weight you want. I used full corrugated cardboard but any will do. Cut to desired size.
• Paper tape

With a ruler draw line on the top of the paper to leave attached. Then going the other direction, draw lines to that point each about 1/4 to 1/3 inch think. You can make the strips larger for younger children and smaller for older. Paper weaving is a lot of fun, it’s easy and it’s a good skill for kids to have early on. I also like adding variety of mediums and textures. So for this project I offered ribbons and different textured paper strips to add variety for weaving.

Cut your lines to make strips for weaving. Go only to the top line, that makes it easier to keep together. And to make that even easier we glued behind the uncut portion and attached it to the same size cardboard. In some cases I stapled it to the top of the board. This allowed the kids to have a worry free top piece to add to. It eliminated a bunch of frustration with weaves coming undone while working. This way, it was fail proof.

Continue to weave until the project is complete. You can ad interest with multi media such as ribbons and even yarn.

Secure strips by weaving tightly. Push them up as needed until no more can fit. Finally, you can use  colorful craft paper tape as a finished border but also to secure and finish off the edges. You can also staple the corners if you think it needs it.

My students did a lovely job and enjoyed the project. I gave the several different strips in both solid and patterned paper. So it added even more design and interest. They idea was for them to be very colorful like the Persian carpet and I think that was accomplished!

Art Around the Ancient World- the line up:

The following lists each lesson by civilization, what each lesson’s focus will be, and the media/project tutorial.

• Prehistory– Cave Paintings– Painting the Ancient Way
• Sumerians – Ancient Writing -Cylinder Seals in Clay
• Egyptians – Egyptian Art – Text as Texture/ Egyptian Headdress
• Assyrians and Babylonians -Near East Metalworking –  Babylonian Art Lesson for Kids
• Phoenicians– Ancient Dyes– Purple Batik Cloths
• Hittites and Ancient Israel– TBA
• Ancient Africa– Akuaba Wooden Doll– African Scratch Art
• Minoan and Mycenaean-Greek Mythology Masks-MinotaurPaper Mache Masks
• Persians– Persian Carpets and Decor- Paper Weaving Project – ( YOU ARE HERE)
• Ancient China- Geometry– Tangrams
• Ancient Greece– Pythagorus – Tessellating Jars
• India- Spice Jar Layer Art
• Rome- Mosaics

The post Art Lesson for Legend of the Persian Carpet appeared first on Dymphna's Song.