Using CONNETIX to Support Learning for School Aged Children

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CONNETIX are wonderful for open ended play but they’ve also been so helpful in making learning engaging for my school-aged children. During distance learning, I was often faced with how to make revising the content my second and fourth grader needed to do more interesting. Manipulating the tiles by moving them around or clicking the correct answers together gave a great feeling of satisfaction for my children. They also make terrific game boards! If you have a child who isn’t motivated by a worksheet, get out your CONNETIX and transfer its content to the tiles! We use either washable chalk markers (check they’re water based) or dry erase markers to write on our tiles – just make sure to wipe off straight after your play! (We haven’t had a problem with either in leaving marks on our tiles.)

Literacy Ideas

Upper/Lowercase alphabet match: Write capital and lowercase letters on tiles and have your child click Aa, Bb, Cc etc together.
Contractions: Write the contraction and its longer form on two different tiles for matching. E.g.: can’t and can not. To make it more challenging write a letter per tile so “i-s- n- o- t “– the “o” can be replaced by a tile with an apostrophe.
Bilingual/Trilingual Word Match: Match like-meaning words in different languages together.
Spelling sight words: Write the sight word on one tile and letters on other separate tiles and your child moves the tiles around to spell the sight word.
Word Definitions: Write the word on one tile, the definition on another. Can they find a match?
Alphabetical Order: Make a ladder of tiles in alphabetical order.
Antonym or Synonym matching. Click words that are opposite or similar together.
Compound Word Join: Join two words that when spelt together form one word with a new meaning. E.g.: sand and castle make sandcastle.
Comprehension/Story Sequencing: Use your large square CONNETIX to recall events in the story in the order they occurred.

Numeracy Ideas

Subitising Snap: Write the numeral on one tile and the dots for the number on the other for your child to practise subitising skills.
Maths fact match: Write number sentences on one tile and have the answer on the other to join them together.
Early Algebra: Use different coloured tiles to represent different number values. For example, two red tiles equals 6 so the value of the red tile is 3.
Factor Trees: Write a number on a large square CONNETIX and then drag the numbers which are its factors underneath.
Number puzzle: Make a 2D shape or design out of CONNETIX. Write maths facts and answers around the tiles and match them together to form the puzzle.
Symmetry: Provide half of a design laid out in CONNETIX and challenge your child to continue the other half.
Isosceles vs Equilateral Triangles: Take out both triangle shapes in your CONNETIX collection and discuss the different properties of each. How are they different? How are they similar?
Nets of 3D shapes: Investigate what the net (the flattened 3D shape) looks like in comparison to its 3D shape. What does the net of a cube look like? How is it different to the net of a rectangular prism?
3D shapes: CONNETIX are brilliant in giving children experience with constructing 3D shapes and counting edges, faces and vertices.
2D shape sort: For early school year students, can they find the squares in your CONNETIX set? What about the triangles? How many sides? Is it still a square if its rotated to look like a diamond?

So as you can see, CONNETIX are so valuable for big kids too! They make learning engaging, hands on and fun.﻿

Written byLucy

Former primary school teacher turned play-at-home-parent to four boys, Lucy is passionate about playful learning and bringing fun to the concepts taught in school, ditching worksheets and using Connetix to bring homework to life.

Upper/Lowercase alphabet match: Write capital and lowercase letters on tiles and have your child click Aa, Bb, Cc etc together.
Contractions: Write the contraction and its longer form on two different tiles for matching. E.g.: can’t and can not. To make it more challenging write a letter per tile so “i-s- n- o- t “– the “o” can be replaced by a tile with an apostrophe.
Bilingual/Trilingual Word Match: Match like-meaning words in different languages together.
Spelling sight words: Write the sight word on one tile and letters on other separate tiles and your child moves the tiles around to spell the sight word.
Word Definitions: Write the word on one tile, the definition on another. Can they find a match?
Alphabetical Order: Make a ladder of tiles in alphabetical order.
Antonym or Synonym matching. Click words that are opposite or similar together.
Compound Word Join: Join two words that when spelt together form one word with a new meaning. E.g.: sand and castle make sandcastle.
Comprehension/Story Sequencing: Use your large square CONNETIX to recall events in the story in the order they occurred.

Subitising Snap: Write the numeral on one tile and the dots for the number on the other for your child to practise subitising skills.
Maths fact match: Write number sentences on one tile and have the answer on the other to join them together.
Early Algebra: Use different coloured tiles to represent different number values. For example, two red tiles equals 6 so the value of the red tile is 3.
Factor Trees: Write a number on a large square CONNETIX and then drag the numbers which are its factors underneath.
Number puzzle: Make a 2D shape or design out of CONNETIX. Write maths facts and answers around the tiles and match them together to form the puzzle.
Symmetry: Provide half of a design laid out in CONNETIX and challenge your child to continue the other half.
Isosceles vs Equilateral Triangles: Take out both triangle shapes in your CONNETIX collection and discuss the different properties of each. How are they different? How are they similar?
Nets of 3D shapes: Investigate what the net (the flattened 3D shape) looks like in comparison to its 3D shape. What does the net of a cube look like? How is it different to the net of a rectangular prism?
3D shapes: CONNETIX are brilliant in giving children experience with constructing 3D shapes and counting edges, faces and vertices.
2D shape sort: For early school year students, can they find the squares in your CONNETIX set? What about the triangles? How many sides? Is it still a square if its rotated to look like a diamond?

Using CONNETIX to Support Learning for School Aged Children

Literacy Ideas

Numeracy Ideas

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