Tangram Tales: Story Theater Using the Ancient Chinese Puzzle

(Paperback)

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Description

Targeted for elementary teachers, drama teachers, and teaching artists, Tangram Tales contains adapted tales from around the world appropriate for grades 2 through 6. Teachers can tell the stories in the classroom as part of a math unit, or have the students use the scripts provided here to perform the stories using tangrams. In the author's tangram story theater process, students are given roles as storytellers, tangram artists, and chorus members to create grade-level story presentations. Other tangram methods, such as individual student tangram tales and student-created tangram tales, are shared as well. The ways in which tangram tales connect language arts and math is demonstrated. The book includes simple black-and-white spot illustrations for each story, showing the tangram figures that depict the story. A reproducible tangram pattern is provided. Grades 2-6

Reviews

A tangram is a set of seven paper or plastic shapes that the player uses to build shapes that the player uses to build shapes of all kinds. The object is clever construction. It is a fun and clever technique to engage kids and teen tellers and another way to capture the attention of the listener, but also develop the reading and storytelling of the participants. This idea is clever enough to demand the book's purchase and integration into the idea of reading, telling, and doing stories for fun. Highly recommended. * Adolescence *
For elementary and drama teachers of students in grades two through six, as well as teaching artists, De La Casas, an author, storyteller, and teaching artist, brings together tales from around the world that she adapted to incorporate the Tangrams puzzle, meant to combine the teaching of math and language arts. She describes the story theater process and presents 25 stories, with illustrations of Tangrams shapes and reproducible patterns. Corresponding language arts benchmarks are listed. * Reference & Research Book News *

Author Bio

Dianne de Las Casas was a professional storyteller and author of four previous books for Libraries Unlimited and Teacher Ideas Press.