Lego Mania has reached a fevered pitch at our house.
My kids have always loved Lego. And other than the price tag, I am happy with their Lego affinity. After all, they are low-tech, require imagination, and enhance spatial reasoning skills. Over all a great brain-boost toy.
My oldest son is probably the Chief Lego Enthusiast at our house. The expression “Eat, sleep, breathe Lego” comes pretty close to describing him as this picture of his bed can attest:
(photo of David’s Lego strewn bed)
And it’s not just the bricks – he loves all things Lego. He follows online commentary about new sets coming out and enjoys the videos produced by Lego. (OK, I’ll admit here that I too appreciate the humor unique to Lego videos).
So it’s no surprise that when he heard last year (or maybe two years ago?) that there was to be a feature length Lego film coming to theaters, he began counting down the days.
He saw the movie. And everything was awesome.
Is Lego Fever rampant at your house too? If so, here are several ways you can build some great learning with those little colored bricks.
* For younger kids, Lego bricks are the perfect medium for sorting skills (put all the red ones here, all the ones with six studs here). And sorting lays a perfect foundation for understanding Venn diagrams (which ones are red AND have six studs?) NOTE: Of course Lego bricks can be choking hazards so this activity should not be encouraged if there are small children prone to putting things in their mouth.
* Learn how to find area using uniform bricks. (This square is 5 bricks high and 5 bricks long and has an area of 25)
* Use all your bricks and pieces to create an entire town, city, country, or universe. Write a story about what happened in the setting you created.
* Fractions (If 2 of these 10 bricks are red, what fraction of them are red?)
* Create your own stop- action movie, complete with script and storyboards.
* Read the history of Lego.
* Find the country on a globe or map where Lego originated.
* Design your own unique creation and make directions so someone else can replicate it.
* Write your own episode of your favorite Lego genre (Ninjago, Chima, Lego Star Wars, etc.)
* Use Lego bricks to make a graph.
* Film your own “Brick Show,” where you talk about features of your favorite Lego set.
* Create a scene from history. (The first battle of the American Revolution, the first moon landing, etc.)
* Research how Lego bricks are made and sets are designed.
* Use Lego bricks to build a model of a molecule or atom.
* Estimate and measure using Lego bricks.
* Use the scientific method to find out how many bricks equal a pound.
So consider this a foundation and add on your own ideas about how to use Lego to build some motivated learners at your house.
Copyright © 2014 J. Hoffman / United Digital Learning
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Email: JHoffman@UnitedDigitalLearning.com