CONNETIX on the move

By Sarah Shan

These magnetic building tiles are more than just a fun distraction for your kids, they are an educational tool designed to promote cognitive development, hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness and most of all, creativity.

Another huge advantage of CONNETIX is that they are also versatile and can be transported easily to be played with wherever you go. It is incredible the difference it makes when you take a well-loved toy and put it in a new location or play with it in a novel way. It gives the toy a new lease of life as if they’ve never played with them before!

This blog is designed to inspire you to think outside the ‘CONNETIX box’ and get creative with CONNETIX on the move. Some of the activities I am going to write about we have done previously and others to simply capture for the purpose of this blog, either way we have had fun exploring new ways to use our tiles.

CONNETIX at the Park

Have you ever thought about taking CONNETIX to the park?

Magnetic or not?

Many park areas have a mixture of magnetic and non-magnetic structures. This is perfect for identifying which materials are magnetic. Remember not all metals are magnetic however iron, nickel, cobalt and some types of steel are – making a fun experiment for children to discover at the playground.

Decorate frames

Once you’ve identified the magnetic metals surfaces such as frames, slides and benches, you can use the tiles to decorate them. There are magnetic goal posts at our park which were perfect for decorating too.

Colour and shape hunt

Parks are an ideal space to spot many different colours and shapes. We made a square shape viewer that we took on our walk creating a great perspective of each item we found. Add an extra element of fun making a magnetic board shape or colour scavenger hunt.

Neighbourhood walk

Encourage physical activity using CONNETIX and engage children along the journey!

Road & Street signs

You could use CONNETIX shapes to match the signs in your neighbourhood or even try to recreate some. You can inspect the signs and identify whether they are uppercase or lowercase letters. There is a free printable on the CONNETIX website of letters and number templates. You could also spot the house numbers or numbers on cars, then make the numbers using the templates or take a mini white board with you.

Route/ coding

We often go on a little neighbourhood walk after dinner. We turned this into a coding activity by planning a route and drawing on the tiles an arrow. We then stacked them in the order to tell us the direction to travel. We did a mock-up version on the whiteboard at home to plan it out. While out and about you can bring your ‘flower spyer’. You can make this with the straight ball run pieces and 2 x ball run connector tiles.

Travel

When choosing which toys if any to take on a trip or vacation it can be hard to select the right one. Have you considered packing your CONNETIX?

Car, bus, train and plane journey.

We have taken a box of CONNETIX on our journey with a magnetic white board although if you don’t have one you could use a base plate or baking tray as a surface to place tiles on. Planes and some trains also have a table that you can build on. Your travels might inspire children to build a car, bus, train or plane; then count how many of each you see along the way.

Restaurant

You can take your tiles in a metal box to play with or print the downloadable resources from the CONNETIX website to copy. You can also make your own activity sheet by drawing around a creation or taking photos, then try to recreate it. We have made a tic-tac-toe grid at home, and this is an easy game idea at a restaurant too; you could use magnetic chips, chalk pens, coins or sauces as the 0’s or X’s. You can also make fidget toys such as a spinner or a cube.

CONNETIX in the Garden

You don’t need to travel very far to get the experience of CONNETIX on the move. The garden is the perfect location to add a fun twist to their play, especially if it is nice weather too.

Obstacle course

We took the CONNETIX in the garden to make an obstacle course. Jumping over, scooting around and dribbling across – the sky is the limit! It is such a great activity to practise gross motor skills without needing to store bulky equipment in your shed!

Magnetic canvas

CONNETIX are also great for artistic creations and why not find a magnetic canvas to show off your masterpiece. You can use garage doors or metal fences as a magnetic vertical canvas. We have used a garage door and even the metal fence at my children’s school! The large surface invites big, elaborate creations and being vertical adds another new dimension to play!

Nature tiles

We collected nature and placed them into a clear tile to view them. They turn into beautiful art pieces; you could even add a string and hang them up as decorations.

Chalk shapes

The pavement is great for making large shape designs by drawing around them with chalk and getting children to fill the shapes in using the tiles.

Shopping

CONNETIX are fun at the supermarket too! You can use a trolley and a basket to help entertain children whilst doing a supermarket shop. It is honestly the best way to keep the kids contained inside the trolley without needing to pick up their toys a million times a minute!

I hope this blog has given you some ideas of how to take your CONNETIX on the move and bring a new sense of joy for using your tiles in a different way.

We would love to hear your views and see any of your recreations, remember to tag @connetix_tiles to share with us.

Sarah Shan

A qualified Science Teacher and mum of 3, Sarah brings her educational knowledge and love of all things STEM to her articles, reviews and play ideas that she shares through her Instagram account.

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