Happy 30th Birthday, Tetris!
To celebrate, Magna-Tects built Magna-Tiles tetrominos on the light table!
If these Magna-Tiles tetrominos fall into place, will they fit together? Yes! Practice visualization skills and then make it with #magnatiles
Tetromino
A tetromino is a 4-polyomino. It is made of four square blocks. There are:
- Free polyominoes (5)
- One-sided polyominoes (7)
- Fixed polyominoes (19)
via mathworld.wolfram.com
7 Tetris tetrominoes
- I-Block (straight/stick/long)
- J-Block (gamma, inverse L, left gun)
- L-Block (right gun)
- O-Block (square/block)
- S-Block (inverse skew, right snake)
- T-Block, and Z-Block (skew/left snake)
Challenge Magna-Tects to make all seven! Learn more on the Tetris Wikia
Magna-Tiles and Tetris Connect
Blocks! Magna-Tects use mental muscle to think of many shapes and pieces, think of them as a whole, and create something new
“Tetris is a simple geometric game. There is no such thing as a person who does not like squares or circles,” Rogers says. “On the other hand there are people who are not into Mickey Mouse or Mario. The basic pleasure of putting blocks together to make something is a universal basic pleasure center. ‘Tetris’ hits that pleasure center right in the center.”
-Henk Rogers, a Dutch video game designer and publisher, who discovered Tetris at a Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in 1988 (via BusinessInsider.com)
Both take skill that develops over time!
When asked how to become a pro at Tetris, Rogers says,
“Practice, practice, practice. There is no way to become a great player without putting in the time.”
Magna-Tects’ Magna-Tiles skills will also develop over time. Children become familiar with 2-D and 3-D shapes as they spend more time playing and building. The best time for children to learn is when they have a high interest!
Visualization
Building and rotating shapes. Magna-Tects must picture what a shape will look like if it is flipped or rotated. Hands-on play facilitates these skills!
