Tangram Tales: Story Theater Using the Ancient Chinese Puzzle

by Dianne de Las Casas

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

136 pages, Paperback

First published December 30, 2008

About the author

Dianne de Las Casas was an award-winning author, storyteller, and founder of Picture Book Month. Her performances, dubbed “revved-up storytelling” were full of energetic audience participation. The author of 24 books, Dianne was the International Reading Association LEADER 2014 Poet Laureate, and the 2014 recipient of the Ann Martin Book Mark award. Her children’s titles include The Cajun Cornbread Boy, There’s a Dragon in the Library, The Little “Read” Hen, The House That Santa Built, and Cinderellaphant. She was also the mom of Kid Chef Eliana, a 14-year-old award-winning chef, cookbook author, and radio show host. Visit her website at diannedelascasas.com. Visit Picture Book Month at PictureBookMonth.com. Twitter & Instagram: @AuthorDianneDLC Facebook: fanofdianne

Reviews

[Shelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a gem of a find! It has tangrams incorporated into tales from around the world. And it is written in storybook theater style! So many uses for this. Great resource!