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Tangram Shape Puzzle Cards
Sixty tangram shapes taken one step at a time. A child copies the color card, solves the plain silhouette, and a grown-up keeps the answer key to hand over when help is needed.
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Tangram Shape Puzzle Cards takes 60 tangram shapes and gives each one a staircase of three cards. Level 1 prints the seven pieces in their own colors, so a child copies what they see piece by piece. Level 2 shows the same shape as one solid silhouette with the lines hidden. The third card is an answer key, labeled for grown-ups, with white lines drawn over the silhouette.
Working through the levels
The how-to-play page sets three rules: use all seven pieces every time, let pieces touch but never overlap or stack, and make sure every piece touches at least one other, along an edge or just at a corner. It adds a few tips. Start with the two big triangles, since they fill half of any shape. The parallelogram is the only piece that changes when flipped over. When a level 2 card is too hard, lay the answer key beside it and cover part of it, so the child gets a partial hint instead of the whole solution.
The 60 shapes
| Group | Shapes |
|---|---|
| Numbers | zero to nine |
| Animals | cow, horse, rooster, kangaroo, giraffe, butterfly, duck, squirrel, bear, fox, donkey, dog, antelope, goose, fish, swan, turtle, cat, rabbit, dove |
| Things | house, table, teapot, shirt, goblet, trophy, chair, flower, candle, candy, tree, arrow, boat, submarine, windmill, palm tree, shower head, ship, sailboat, balloon |
| People | person, runner, walker, pointing, jumper, man with hat, standing, resting, walking, crouching |
Every card is numbered out of 60 and names its group in the top corner, and the three cards for a shape sit together in the files.
Printing and pieces
The cut-out sheet prints the seven pieces as one 150 mm square, and suggests gluing the sheet to card before cutting, or laminating afterward. The shapes on the cards are drawn smaller than that set, so children build next to the card. The ink saver and paper saver file holds 60 outline versions of the level 2 cards, then sheets of four cards, alternating a level 1 sheet with its matching level 2 sheet, first in A4 and then in US Letter. The PNG files carry every card as a separate image, named in the same order as the PDFs.
