Read and Play with CONNETIX

By Emma

Have you felt the excitement when your child begins recognising and tackling new words on their own? When they suddenly start sounding out words on signs or menus, trying to make sense of the world around them? It’s one of those lightbulb moments that feels like the start of something big.

But what next? Rather than diving into the heavily marketed educational workbooks and flashcards, you can continue to lay the groundwork for early reading at home through play.

Children learn best through play….in fact, play is learning! Research shows that young children learn most effectively through active, hands-on exploration rather than passive, structured instruction. In the early years, the brain is extremely adaptable; continually forming and strengthening neural connections in response to sensory rich, engaging experiences. This means providing play-based learning opportunities for children is hugely beneficial.

CONNETIX create an ideal foundation for this type of learning. They are naturally inviting, engaging and the perfect open-ended tool for learning. Below are a few games to try using CONNETIX to foster early reading skills.

House Hunt

This game consolidates initial and final sounds, plus builds vocabulary. You will need square tiles, a chalk maker and timer to play.

Set up:

Write sounds/ letter patterns – using a chalk marker, write sounds or letter patterns on individual tiles. For example, on separate tiles write ‘s’, ‘b’, ‘sh’ and ‘ch’. Try using five tiles to start with. To increase complexity of the game, increase the number of tiles with sounds.

How to play:

Scatter tiles on a table.
Announce whether the game is to search for initial sounds or final sounds. For example, “this round, we are hunting for initial sounds”.
To begin, have your child select a tile. Once the timer starts, they need to run around the house and find an object that starts/finishes with that sound. For example, if the letter is “b” and if looking for initial sounds, they might find a book. If looking for final sounds and the tile selected was ‘ch’ they might find a watch.
Once an item has been found, bring it back to the table and take another tile. Continue the above steps until the timer goes off.
The player with the most tiles wins.

Silly Sentences Game

This game helps children build sentences by combining fun words from different categories. You will need square tiles, a chalk marker and dice to play.

Set up:

Choose four colours of tiles – with six of each colour. For example, 6 blue, 6 green, 6 yellow and 6 clear tiles.
Assign categories – Each colour represents a word category. For example;

Who? (a character, animal, person): blue tiles
Doing what? (an action): green tiles
Where? (a location): yellow tiles
Label the fourth colour of tiles with the numerals 1 through to 6.

Add Words – write different words or phrases on each tile using a chalk marker as above.
Arrange Tiles – put the number tiles in order in a column, then put the other colour tiles in columns alongside to make a table.

How to play:

Roll a dice three times.
After each roll, pick a tile from the matching category (blue for the first roll, green for the second and yellow for the third)
Put the tiles together in order to make a sentence – then read it aloud and enjoy the silliness.

CONNETIX Ice Cream Word Sort

This game helps practice and consolidate sound patterns by sorting words based on similar phonetic features. You will need triangle tiles, square tiles and a chalk marker.

Set up:

Create ice cream cones: on two triangle tiles, draw an ice cream cone shape using a chalk marker. To increase complexity of the game, increase the number of ice cream cones.
Create the scoops: on the square tiles, draw an ice cream scoop shape on each one using a chalk marker.
Write words: on each scoop, write a word that features specific sound patterns for sorting. For example, focus on the “ph” and “f” pattern

“ph” words for scoop tiles: photo, phone, elephant, graph
“f” words for scoop tiles: fish, fun, frog, fast

Another example, focus on long “e” and short “e” sounds.

Long “e” words: bee, tea, eve, eat, treat
Short “e” words: sent, best, dress, red, pet

Arrange the game: place the triangle cones on a table and scatter the scoop tiles around.

How to play:

Child picks a scoop tile and reads the word aloud.
They then decide what sound pattern it is and places it on its corresponding ice cream cone.

CONNETIX Boggle

This game is a great introduction to word building and letter recognition. You will need square tiles, a chalk marker, timer and a piece of paper or whiteboard.

Set up:

Choose square tiles – start with nine.
Write letters – write a different letter on each tile with a chalk marker. Ensure a mix of vowels and frequently used consonants. For example, s,a,t,p,i,n,m,e,d
Arrange tiles in a grid – lay the tiles out in a 3X3 grid pattern. To increase difficulty, add additional tiles to make a larger grid.

How to play:

Set a timer for 1 minute.
Make as many words as you can using letters on the grid. Write them on a piece of paper or whiteboard.

Optional scoring; give one point for each word found. The person with the most points after each round wins.

We hope you love these simple and fun literacy-based activities, if you’d like to learn more about how to start learning to read, you’d might enjoy this blog too: Where reading starts: Let’s talk about Learning to Read

Emma

Emma is an early childhood and primary trained teacher. She shares her life as mum to four girls, their homeschooling adventures and everyday play ideas through her Instagram account @play_at_home_mummy on Instagram.

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