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Magna-Tiles Clear Colors 100 Piece Set

Mindprint Rating

Tags

^21st Century Skills K-8 Game

Skills

Abstract Reasoning Visual Motor Speed Spatial Perception

Mindprint Expert Review

Pros

  • Shapes are sturdy, well--designed, visually appealing for all ages and are safe to have in the house with toddlers.
  • Provides endless hours of creative play.
  • Different than most construction toys in that the use of geometric shapes can reinforce early academic geometry skills.

Considerations

  • Expensive.
  • Generally need one of the larger sets to hold a child's interest (e.g. 32 piece set is insufficient).

Mindprint Expert Review

Magna-Tiles is a simple yet superb building toy for both young children and older children. The 100 piece set includes 50 Small Squares, 4 Large Squares, 15 Isosceles Triangles, 11 Right Triangles and 20 Equilateral Triangles all that attract on all sides and are truly unbreakable. Students will achieve an intuitive sense of geometric shapes which parents can use to teach, and there are endless options to create and build. The clear set is preferable because students can put other items inside their structures and see them. The relative size and colors are appropriate for young children and yet feel sufficiently mature for older children to continue to use. Because the pieces come together as magnets, children can focus on their building ideas and not on fitting together small pieces, which is particularly motivating for children who struggle with fine motor weaknesses.

Academic Benefits

Improves academic skills

  • Provides sufficient and varied types of practice problems to maximize understanding and generalization of the targeted skill/concept
  • Manufacturer claims alignment with Common Core/Known Standards
  • Presents educational concepts accurately
  • Explains answers so students can learn from mistakes
  • Better for teaching the skill to new or struggling learners
  • Better for practicing or refreshing the skill
  • Skills are practiced through authentic, meaningful problems (not just rote practice)

Fun

Engaging for the Mindprint recommended age range

  • Appropriate for a broad age range to use and enjoy
  • Visually appealing to children in the target age range
  • Adults would enjoy playing with a child
  • For electronic games, gives positive or encouraging feedback
  • Offers ongoing, progressive challenge
  • Overall - Enjoyable. Given the option, students would choose this option

Easy to Use

Understandable for children in the Mindprint recommended age range

  • Provides teaching guidance for adults to support the child and set appropriate goals
  • Student should be able to use independently after first use
  • Student graduates to the next level or topic only after meeting a benchmark
  • Can effectively understand and monitor student's progress (email report or in product)
  • Does not require excessive set-up time after first time use
  • Can be fun as a single player game
  • Multi-player game which fosters collaboration or cooperation
  • Well-made for the cost
  • For electronic games, can play without sound
  • For electronic games, allows user to save work
  • For electronic games, voice/sounds are appealing and pronounces words properly
  • Provides options to play in languages other than English/Good for ELL
  • Presents information in multiple formats (voice over, pictures and text, etc.)
  • Overall - Easy to use

Manufacturer Description

Magna-Tiles are the original 3D magnetic building tiles by Valtech since 1997. Each tile edge is magnetized so you can connect them to build anything you can imagine. If you can click it, you can create it! Not only are Magna-Tiles fun, but they also help develop fine motor skills as kids stack, build, count, match and ?click? together their creations. All original Magna-Tiles building sets are compatible. Tag your photos on social media with #magnatiles to be featured! Safe, durable tiles made with food-grade ABS (BPA FREE) plastic free of phthalates and latex