Incorporating Legos in school

My kids absolutely love Legos. I would like to be able to incorporate that love into our school somehow. I know about the Lego education curriculum but it’s just a bit expensive for my budget. My kids are 9 and 11. do y’all have any ideas I could use?

My son likes to play with his Legos while I am reading so I just ask him to build something that goes with the story. He has built pyramids, the Roman Colosseum, a trojan horse, viking ships and much more.
He currently is taking a co op class that is using the Lego Education kit-he loves it!

That’s a great idea. I’ll def have to do that as well.

There are a lot of free Lego printables online. Check out Pinterest or free homeschool deals.

Great idea! I will def be using that idea😉

My kids love Legos, too. Ideas that we have used include:

1. Build a scene/diorama with Legos to tie-in with their history lesson
2. Build a diorama out of Legos as part of a book report
3. Build something (could be an animal - real or make believe, a building, landscaping, a scene with Lego people, etc.) and then write a paragraph or short story about what they built
4. Take any of the above ideas and have the child give an oral presentation to the family using his Lego build as the visual.

When my kids show me what they made out of Legos, I encourage them to tell me all about it. This helps them put their ideas into words. I show genuine interest and ask questions, such as if they have a name for what they built, was this their first idea or did their idea change during the building process, what was their motivation in building this item (did they read about something and wanted to create it, was this from their imagination, etc), did they experience any difficulties while building, and if yes, how did they solve it. I then usually point out a feature or two that I really like. Over time, I noticed their thoughts becoming more organized when sharing with me what they built. This process began with just a few questions (nothing tedious), but over time, my kids loved telling me all the details about their creations and really enjoyed me asking additional questions.

Lastly, my kids got involved with First Lego League (FLL). My husband and I started a team with support from our local co-op. It is not quite the same as just building with Legos, as there is a project to complete, a Lego Mindstorm robot to build and program, presentations to prepare, and competitions to attend. It is a lot of hard work, but my kids have learned so much and gained so many valuable skills. There might already be a team(s) in your area that your kids could join for a reasonable fee.

I have tons of ideas on my Pinterest boards! Some of them are similar to what has already been mentioned. You may also use them in the same way you would use Unifix cubes for math. Attach stickers to them for letter practice, building words/spelling, states/capitals/abbreviations, books of the Bible. Use them as weights. Use an eight, a four, a two, and a one to introduce fractions. Create a bar graph. Give them building challenges. (There are several blogs devoted to this idea.)

I also check or follow the following sites for Lego themed writing prompts:

homegrown learners
homeschool encouragement
educatinglaytons

Thanks so much for all the great ideas! I’m pretty sure I just pinned a bunch of your ideas from pinterest last night. Haha!

I just read some of the posts more closely and remembered something else. Some 4H programs have Robotics clubs that use Lego Education for their base.

Both of my kids are in 4H so I’ll need to look into that.

Pinterest has lots of fun and good ideas.
We use them with our history curriculum a lot. We’ve built a lot of structures. We’ve built the Parthenon, Castles, a battering ram and such. we use the lego men to make out the battles. Last week we did the Battle of Hastings I Use the bigger blocks for sight works with my daughter. I print off her words with my label maker and put them on the blocks. We use the different colors of legoes to make patterns.

A local-to-me homeschool mom started a Lego Challenge Facebook Group. Every Monday she posts a new challenge and students have a week to submit a picture. We’ve had: take 2 random cups of legos and build something, build a scene from your favourite story, use only 1 color, design a playground etc. It has been really fun. The kids can peruse each other’s photos and leave comments etc.

Wow that is an awesome idea! I would love the name of the fb group if you can give it to me.

I would like the Facebook name of this group also. I sounds like a lot of fun.

Here’s the link to the Facebook group. If you can’t access that way, you can send me your e-mail and I can invite you to join.https://www.facebook.com/groups/800448900020566/

The Facebook group can be found here:https://www.facebook.com/groups/800448900020566/
It’s called Homeschool Lego Challenge

We Legos at our house! We use them for math, literature, history, story-telling - you name it. We have lots of traditional sets and I troll many of the places/resources already mentioned. We have also invested in some of the Lego Education sets as well. It’s probably easier to list them:

1. StoryStarters - we use this to help cement the ideas in a story we’ve been reading by building a scene, creating an alternate ending, or as story prompts for our own creativity. The software is useful in creating story boards and ideas in a child-friendly way. The same could be done in photoshop type programs, but those are usually more challenging for the child. I use this set in my Sunday School class as well as teaching in our local co-op. Last week we were using the set to create Stop Motion Animation movies - so much fun!
2. WeDo - this is a great introduction to robotics and visual programming as well as gears. Last year we used this set, along with the additional resource set as part of our Jr FLL team. This semester, I have started teaching a class for my daughter and 2 of our homeschool friends using the activity packs. The kids are really loving it and I can see their logical reasoning really taking off. I haven’t worked with it yet, but am super excited that the free Scratch program by MIT has a WeDo extension available, so we can program in a different environment and when teaching in a coop setting, free software means the kids can practice at home without the burden of purchasing a specific application. There is also an awesome challenge group with monthly building and programming challenges - you can check it our here: Dr. E’s WeDo Challenge.
3. Simple Machines - this set was another one we used with our Jr. FLL in which we learned the basics: gears, pulleys, levers, and wheels and axles. We combine these with our WeDo set quite often!
4. Sceneries - this one works fabulously with StoryStarters (predates it even) and with our WeDo set - allowing for “Smart” house construction, motorized vehicles, even a Ferris Wheel. I bring this set along to our weekly WeDo class for our preschool siblings to build with.
5. Our NXT Robot - not the education version or the newest, we have the NXT 2.0 that a local lady was selling after her nephew had graduated. Definitely an advancement from WeDo, but we’re looking forward to using with FLL next year. Sometimes the NXT software is buggy, and won’t run on my Mac. The good news is that the free EV3 (next generation robot) software can be used to program the NXT “brain”, but the building and programming instructions/samples for NXT aren’t available in the EV3 software and you can’t open programs created in NXT in EV3. I have found several resources by No Starch Press to be of great use!
6. Not to be left out, I have a couple of sets for my toddler turned preschooler as well. She adores the Tubes Experiment Set and the Brick Runner (no longer available). I love that she’s learning cause and effect as well as creative buildings techniques. We just added the retiring Wild Animals set as we learn about habitats and animals.

Hope this helps!

We are trying the Simple Machines for Elementary Ages Lego Education set this fall with my son who will be in 1st Grade by then. Do you have any feedback on how the lessons went for you? Did you use it with that age level or an older child? And how long did the lessons take for you to complete? Sorry for so many questions I haven’t conversed with anyone who has used it before. Thanks in advance for any tips!

My daughter was in 1st grade when we started with Simple Machines. She loved them, as she does most everything Lego. Lessons can be completed in ½ hour or so if you are pressed for time, or take as long as you allow for experimenting. We have continued to use them - starting 3rd grade now. I scheduled Lego lessons in one day each week last year and that helped us not feel rushed or like we were missing out. I’m going to do the same this year as well. I’ll also be incorporating them into a small private K-1 classroom this year - so we’ll see how that goes.

So would you suggest the Simple Machines to start? I have a 6 year old boy (going into 1st) and a 2.5 year old girl. I couldn’t tell what is necessary to get for the Simple Machines kit. I also saw the Jr stuff. What would you suggest?