Ms. Wise & Ms. Otherwise: How to Learn with Legos!

Quote of the day, "It isn't fun to teach your kids when it isn't fun." Yes, obvious, I know, but sometimes we need reminders to change things up, do things differently to have fun! So, how about playing and learning at the same time. I like building with Legos. Legos and other building toys are so awesome for schooling with. The big Legos, the little Legos, the Lego kits, the extra “cool” pieces…all are useful! We have tons and tons of Legos of all sizes.

Where do I get ‘em? (And, where could I look?)

*Clearance sales
*Yard/garage sales
*One place to get “cool” pieces is from http://www.ldfr.com/. Once there, type the word Lego into the search engine to find Lego products.
*eBay
*At http://www.lego.com/ you can shop online or find a store.

Here are some ideas

HISTORY:

Study Ziggurats and Pyramids, then create them. Talk about the differences, the materials used, the people who made them, why they were made, the lasting effects.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziggurat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/egypt/architecture/egyptarchit.htm
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/westasia/architecture/westarch.htm

Here you can see Princess trying to build AND protect her ziggurat from the invading destroyer (Chubby).


Learn about specific battles in wars, learn strategies. What clever ways did U.S. Generals use to help win? Lay out elaborate battle scenes from various wars and reenact them. We like to incorporate army guys and Lincoln Logs for this one.
http://cybersleuth-kids.com/sleuth/History/Wars/World_War_I/Important_Battles/index.htm
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/civilwar.htm

Build famous buildings in history that you have been learning about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_tower
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ben

SCIENCE:

Study about pulleys, rotation, speed and angles.
http://www.lego.com/education/school/default.asp?l2id=3_3&pageName=4_1

Join a FIRST Lego League and learn about robotics and compete! They have different divisions for younger and older kids. We have participated in this and it is a great lot of fun for the kids and they have the opportunity to learn and present themselves and to work together as a team.
http://firstlegoleague.org/

Learn about dinosaurs, elephants or other large animals and then build the biggest one you can.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant

ART:

Learn about what makes for sound architecture and then try out unstable foundations and stable foundations.

Make any sort of fun creation on your own.

Draw something or make a clay sculpture and then try to recreate it with Legos.

LITERATURE:

Build a Lego theater/stage and then do a puppet show, live show (if you have lots of Legos), or a play using dolls as actors using the stage.

Learn about what a setting is and then build the setting of a book with Legos.

Build and enact a “Tall Tale” with Legos