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Our CONNETIX are used for all types of play in our home. Whether my children are engaged in pretend play, building or games with the tiles, they are constantly learning new skills. Mathematical concepts, including learning numbers, happen so naturally when children begin to play with the tiles. Even when we don’t set up an activity, there is no doubt our children are engaging in hands on learning as they play and explore with CONNETIX.
When children are first learning to count, we can model mathematical language by counting the number of tiles they’ve used to build something as well as naming the shape and colour. Even in a child’s early stage of stacking tiles, we can count each tile one by one to familiarise them with numbers and counting. As their confidence in 1:1 correspondence counting increases, we can move to other think-aloud questions to extend their play and learning, for example “I wonder if you can build something with 15 tiles…” or “I wonder how many tiles you can use to make the tallest tower…” These challenges encourage children to use their creativity and number sense to demonstrate their understanding, making learning with CONNETIX natural and fun.
Counting also comes naturally when children engage in pretend play with the tiles. For example my children love to use the small equilateral triangles to make pizzas and ask each other how many slices of pizza they want. To extend this further, I ask addition and subtraction questions, such as “if I eat 2 slices, how many slices will you have left?” Our magnetic tiles provide endless opportunities for hands-on exploration and gives children concrete material to count, manipulate and learn with.
Through unstructured play, we can narrate and ask meaningful questions to extend play and learning. When children build towers, ask how many cubes they’ve used. When they build a road for cars, ask what the length is using their tiles as the unit of measurement. My children often build houses with lots of rooms across the floor for their peg dolls. It’s an open birds’ eye view of the house. When I observe these creations, I introduce relevant concepts such as perimeter and area, demonstrating how to calculate these by counting the tiles they’ve used. This is all child-led play and we are facilitating the learning process by asking relevant questions when the teaching opportunity arises.
The CONNETIX Number Cards are also a fantastic tool for providing exposure to number recognition. For younger children, they develop visual scanning skills as they find a specific tile to put on top of the number card. As their visual motor skills improve, children can copy the number card to form the digits, learning imitation skills and visual spatial skills to figure out where each tile goes and how to rotate it to match the picture.
There are other ways to use the Number Cards for playing and learning. Children can:
As children develop their fine motor skills and begin to write, they can also use CONNETIX as a tracing board to learn number formation. I have done this for my children by writing numbers on a sheet of paper and placing it between two base boards. I provide whiteboard markers for them to write over the tiles and trace the numbers. The CONNETIX tracing board provides a unique medium to learn to write on, encouraging children to practise over and over again as it can easily be wiped off.
Besides unstructured play, we also use our tiles to make up different games and puzzles. Rather than buying and storing a tonne of Maths games, we just recreate them with CONNETIX.
Here are a few simple play ideas:
Get 10 tiles of one colour and 10 tiles of another colour. On one set, write down numbers 1-10. On the other set, draw the corresponding dots 1-10. Children can match the pieces up.
Using the base plates, write down numbers 1-6. Roll the rice, if a player has that number, place a counter on top. Alternatively, roll 2 dice for Addition Bingo and write down the numbers 2-12.
Make a 4×4 Sodoku puzzle using the base plates and numbers 1-4. Alternatively, put 4 base plates together to do a bigger, harder Sodoku with numbers 1-8!
Draw a line in the middle of the small rectangles or squares and dot patterns on each side of the line.
CONNETIX also make the perfect tens frame, which is a rectangular frame consisting of two rows of five squares. A tens frame teaches children to subitise, basic number facts (such as number combinations of 10) as well as simple addition and subtraction problems. Children can place counters to practise counting or play simple number games on it. When children have developed a strong grasp of numbers up to 10, we can use our tiles to build 20 frames and so on. We have even built a 100s frame and used it for various maths games such as Snakes and Ladders and “fill in the missing number”. Children can make CONNETIX number charts for identifying number patterns and skip counting, both of which help build the skills for multiplication. All you need is a whiteboard marker!
To wrap up, our tiles have been such a multipurpose and versatile resource, used across various ages for activities, number games as well as unstructured play. It makes learning numbers so natural, hands on and meaningful. It can be used in place of mathematical resources such as ten frames and number charts. CONNETIX provides learning opportunities for so many number concepts, not just counting but also area, perimeter, length, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions… the list goes on. CONNETIX promotes hands on learning and in turn, children develop a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts as they manipulate the tiles, experience with concepts and engage in critical thinking and problem solving.
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