Monkey Pod Games Blog

Hi Everyone,

This blog post is dedicated to our raffle we are holding! We at Monkey Pod Games feel that sometimes wooden brain teasers are misunderstood. Sometimes people think they are boring and cannot hold up to electronic toys and entertainment.

Well Monkey Pod Games is ready to prove this assumption false! That is why we are holding a raffle to give a free puzzle to one lucky winner. And the puzzle we have chosen to dispel the myths of brain teasers is the SOMA CUBE.

So, lets cut to the important part which is how to get involved! Our raffle is being held through our facebook fan page. All you have to do is go there, become a fan, and then attend the event. It is not enough to just attend the event, you must be a fan aswell. However this whole raffle is free! No monetary costs and no needing to give up any information or pricacy. We have been saying for along time that this social community is for you, the consumers. Hence this raffle is for you all

So we truly hope you will join in the fun and good luck to all!

Warmly,

Monkey Pod Games

We’ve just posted an article about how to use the Tangram Puzzle as an educational tool!  Because the seven pieces of the tangram make up essential geometric shapes, the puzzle can be used to teach students to explore concepts relating to math and geometry.  We’ve posted a sample lesson plan for the Tangram, as well as links to additional resources.

Check out the Tangram Puzzle article and Wooden Puzzles on the Monkey Pod Games website!

Tangram Puzzle

This deceptively simple appearance of the tangram puzzle belies its rich history and folklore.  The seven pieces of the tangram—a square, a parallelogram, and five triangles—make up a larger square.  The challenge of the tangram puzzle is to form a specified shape using the seven pieces, which are called tans.  In each configuration, the tans must lay flat and touch but not overlap each other.

The tangram dates back thousands of years.  According to an ancient Chinese legend, a young man wished to present the emperor with a gift, a beautiful glass tile.  But on his trip to the palace, the tile shattered into seven different pieces. The man tried to reconstruct the tile from the pieces but did not succeed.  Instead, he decided to create pictures using the pieces of tile, and presented the emperor with the picturs.  Thus, the seven-piece puzzle known as the tangram was born.

The earliest evidence of the tangram dates back to the early 19th century, when the tangram puzzles were brought over to American from China on American ships.  The tangrams were sometimes constructed from expensive material like ivory and jade.

Since then, tangrams have taken off: Napoleon was said to own one, as was Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll. 

An American puzzle inventor, Sam Loyd, even wrote a spoof about the history of the tangram, called The Eighth Book of Tan.  The tangram puzzles has become popular with both kids and adults who enjoy the mind-bending challenges, and with mathematicians and geometry fan who study all the possible combinations of the Tangram puzzle pieces.

Don’t forget to check out Monkey Pod Game’s version of the Tangram wooden puzzle!

Tangram Shapes