5 Board Games using CONNETIX

By Jessica Chu

One of our favourite ways to bond as a family is to play board games together. We often use CONNETIX to recreate the games we don’t have. This allows us to customise the game, making it more adaptable to different learning levels and interests. It also encourages us to use our imagination to create and modify the game utilising the resources we have.

1. Count your Chickens

Peaceable Kingdom’s ‘Count your Chickens’ is a cooperative boardgame where players work as a team to bring the baby chicks back inside the coop before Mother Hen gets to the last space on the board. Our CONNETIX recreation of the game is slightly modified, but the goal remains the same.

Set up:

Board: Use CONNETIX to create a path with a chicken coop at the end

– Draw a tractor on some blue tiles

– Draw a red fox on some red tiles

– Counters (for the baby chicks and Mother Hen)

– 6-sided dice

How to play:

Players roll the dice and move Mother Hen along the path according to the number rolled. For each space travelled (I.e. the number on the dice), players collect that number of baby chicks and place them in the coop. But watch out for the fox, if a player lands on the fox a baby chick is removed from the coop! If a player lands on a tractor, they can collect an additional chick to place into the coop.

Players take turns but work together. Count out loud, collect the number of chicks together and if all the chicks are in the coop before Mother Hen reaches the end, players win together.

Tip: Create more blue tractor tiles than red fox tiles to increase the chances of collecting all the baby chicks to win!

Skills:

– Team work

– 1:1 correspondence counting

– Adding

– Subtracting

2.Snakes & Ladders

This classic game of Snakes and Ladders can be easily recreated using CONNETIX. Players roll the dice to move along the board, climbing up ladders or sliding down snakes with the goal to be the first to get to the top of the board.

Set up:

Board: Use CONNETIX squares for the board, fence pieces for ladders and rectangles for snakes

– Chalk marker to write numbers

– Counters / peg dolls

– 6-sided dice

Skills:

– Counting

– Basic addition

– Turn taking

How to play:

Players take turns to roll the dice and move forward the number of spaces shown on the dice. If a player lands at the bottom of a ladder, they can move up to the top of the ladder. If a player lands on the head of a snake, they must slide down to the bottom of the snake. The first player to get to the highest number on the board is the winner.

The game can be modified to have more or less numbers.

3.Tic Tac Toe

Tic Tac Toe or noughts and crosses is another classic game that doesn’t take long to set up at all! Using CONNETIX to play provides a more hands on experience than the traditional paper and pencil game. All you need is some tape for the grid!

Set up:

Board: Painters tape to create a 3×3 grid

– CONNETIX tiles (2 colours)

Skills:

– Decision making

– Problem solving

– Attention to detail

– Spatial skills

How to play:

Players take turns putting their tiles down on the grid in the empty squares. The first player to get 3 colours in a row (up, down or diagonal) is the winner. When all 9 squares are full, the game ends. If no one has 3 colours in a row, it is a tie.

4.Checkers

Checkers is a strategy board game for two players, played on an 8×8 grid of alternating dark and light squares. Choose 2 colours and create the board with CONNETIX squares.

Set up:

– Board: CONNETIX squares to set up an 8×8 square board, with 2 alternating colours

– 24 pieces (12 of each colour for each player e.g. 12 yellow and 12 red)

– Pieces are placed on the three rows closest to each player, occupying only the dark (red) squares.

Skills:

– Strategic thinking

– Memory retention

– Patience and persistence

– Spatial reasoning

How to play:

Players take turns to move their checker forward diagonally, always staying on the same coloured square.

The goal is to capture all of the opponent’s pieces or block them from capturing yours. To capture an opponent’s piece, you jump over it diagonally to an empty square directly beyond it. Captured pieces are removed from the board. Players are only allowed to move one checker per turn, moving one space at a time unless jumping.

When a piece reaches the last row on the opponent’s side, it is “kinged” and gets an additional ability to move both forward and backward diagonally. Kings have more flexibility to move on the board.

A player wins the game when they have captured all of the opponent’s pieces or left them unable to make anymore moves.

5. Addition Bingo

There are so many variations of Bingo and using CONNETIX to create the game means you can do any Bingo game you want! Whether that be addition, doubles, multiplication or subtraction… or sight word, pictures and colour bingo – the possibilities are endless.

Set up:

– Board: CONNETIX base boards

– Chalk marker (to write numbers on the tiles)

– Two 6-sided dice

Modifications:

– Doubles Bingo: Write numbers 2 to 12 on a CONNETIX base board. Roll 1 dice and double the number.

– Multiplication Bingo: Write down the products ranging from 1 to 36. The possible answers from rolling two 6-sided dice are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 16, 18, 20, 24, 25, 30, and 36.

– Numbers Bingo: Write down the numbers 1 to 6 for a simple roll the dice and cover the number game.

– Colour Bingo: Create bingo cards with different colours written on it. Use different coloured CONNETIX squares to make a multi-coloured Bingo base board. Take turns flipping the card to reveal the colour and if you have the matching colour on your board, cover it with a counter.

Skills:

– Basic arithmetic

– Number recognition

– Attention and focus

– Social skills in group play

How to play:

For addition bingo, write numbers from 2 to 12 on the 4×4 CONNETIX base boards. Players take turns to roll two 6-sided dice, add up the numbers and use a magnetic tile to cover the answer on their board. The first player to cover 4 in a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally wins the game.

Jessica Chu

Jess is a primary school teacher turned stay at home mum. She has 5 children ranging from 8 months old to 7 years old. Jess believes learning happens naturally through play. She has intentionally curated open-ended toys in her home to foster creativity, a love for play and a desire for learning.

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