Learning with Lego

Today is the anniversary of Lego being patented in 1958, consequently today has been declared Lego Day in our house ;)

I have noticed recently on Facebook that there have been a lot of posts about how to use Lego educationally. In part, this has led to me writing this post so that I have all the links in one place for when we need them. This got me on to thinking about how we have always used Lego for learning :)

Lego and Duplo bricks have come in very handy over the years. Sometimes we have used them to build objects that are related to our topics - like the dinosaur above; other times they have been a great stand in - most recently for harbour walls in a home made ripple tank when learning about waves. In the past, we've been to a local Home Ed group based around Lego building and my children have recently been enjoying using the Lego robotics kit to learn some programming using Classroom Activities for the Busy Teacher: EV3 . They're not quite ready for the Lego League yet, but I was very interested to hear of a team of Home Educators who have made it through to the First Lego League nationals :)

At one time, I had a really useful book about mapping where all the activities were designed to use a Duplo train set. Unfortunately, I've passed the book and train set onwards and can not for the life in me remember what it was called :( It was a very effective way to teach about parallel lines though  and I remember that they built a great track with houses, trees and a farm and had to draw a map of their layout. Very good, challenging fun :)

I got a lot of good ideas on how to use Lego bricks from this Lego Unit. The Girl did it a few years ago, and now I'm hoping that Boykin will enjoy the updated version just as much as she did :) There's even a Kindergarten Kit for younger children, but we've never tried it out. If you have got little ones, this site has printable activities for Duplo bricks to go with a reading list.

We've used Lego for maths lots and lots of times, even if it was only to use the bricks as counters for the activities in their maths curriculum. The different colours, shapes and sizes are great to use for  sorting activities for younger ones, moving on to multiplication and fraction help for older ones. In between, we have used them to help explain area, perimeter, graphing, measuring, weighing on balance scales, pattern, symmetry and tessellation. You can get ideas and printables for some maths activities here.

There are lots of Lego resources to encourage creative writing too. Like these activities that show the building blocks of story writing to accompany the new Lego Movie which comes out in February. i have to confess that I'm intrigued by Lego Grammar: Making Grammar Fun to help build our English skills.

Lego for science. Look at this skull and a complete skeleton with organs and veins. Now there's a building challenge! Here's one on photosynthesis which I will do with The Girl some time soon.

My eldest son introduced them to Cuusoo, a site where you can offer your own suggestions for new Lego kits that the Cuusooo community then vote on. This is how Minecraft Lego kits came about :)

There are lots of videos on youtube that use Lego for stopmotion animation. There's even a free app to help you make your own. Of course there are many other youtube videos showing how Lego can be used fir making mechanical objects and also a video telling the story of Lego.

Both my children have enjoyed receiving their free Lego club magazines - it's always nice to get post, isn't it? The magazines have encouraged reading, entering competitions and have included some building instructions too :)

They can take part in a monthly Lego build challenge at this blog.
And here is Boykin's answer to a challenge to build on a 6x6 plate.

For artistic inspiration, Nathan Sawaya has made some interesting Lego sculptures. 
Or play LEGO Games 3844: Creationary .

Your child can participate in the free Lego Club at Currclick. You can sign up for these every few weeks, the club meets once a month and each session has a theme. Again, this is something that we have to try out yet as they are currently enrolling for a night session. I'll have a look again in a few weeks when they next enrol for a session at a more convenient time to us :)

Your child can even earn a Lego Master badge, if they fancy it. DIY.org is a great way for children who don't want to join a uniform organisation, such as Scouts, to earn badges to mark their achievements. of course, even if they are in Scouts or Cubs or Guides or Brownies they can still participate in the activities on offer :) I think if we take this up, they'll have more patches for me to sew on their camp blankets. I've not shown this site to them just yet, I have enough cub and scout badges to sew on as it is ;)

Learning with Lego on Pinterest is a mine of ideas and activities in different subject areas but mainly numeracy. I'd get yourself a brew before you start going through them all, you could be there sometime :) Pinterest is not something I've really gotten into as yet, but seeing this collection has definitely roused my interest :)

You can get building instructions online at  Lego Customer Services, Worldbricks and cubiculus.

If you want to replace those missing bricks, or if you want specific bricks to complete that model you're working on, or you prefer  original paper instructions to a download, make sure you visit Mr. Bungles Brick Bazaar. You'll get excellent customer service along with very reasonable prices.

I would love to hear how Lego is used in your home as an educational aid. 
Please add your favourite links in the comments to help make this an even more comprehensive resource. Thank you :)

ETA: 
Chemical Reactions explained with lego
Accompanying Teachers notes to above 
Lego balloon car instructions

Cubs and Planets

I really like it when different aspects of my children's lives come together to inspire learning at home. Both my children are in the Scouting movement, The Girl is a scout and Boykin is a cub. Sometimes that external factor can be just the spur they need to explore new ideas and topics...

Over the last few sessions at cubs, they've been working as a pack towards the Astronomy badge. They were asked to make a report at home of some aspect of astronomy to take in to show the other cubs.

Boykin said he wanted to do something about the planets, I suggested a lapbook and he was very keen to go. I had a quick look on Currclick and on Homeschoolshare, where I found one on 'Planets' that he liked. I could see that he would be able to complete it more or less independently. The 'more' part being all the writing and extracting of information; the 'less' was, as usual, all the cutting and sticking involved :/ I know, however, that he is more than capable of using scissors, a guillotine and a gluestick so having him do the bits that he finds laborious seems a pointless exercise to me, and a surefire way of putting him off on the very first day.

It's been a while since we did a lapbook on a topic, in fact, thinking about it, it's been a while since we did a lapbook at all. Boykin has really come on since the last time we did one in terms of organising himself, writing in the information and deciding a strategy for completing the minibooks.  I was impressed with his ability to paraphrase and edit, and also with the way he got to grips with long multiplication and tried to tackle long division too. He had to write in his neatest handwriting too, to make sure that Akela could read it :)

Boykin developed new skills in time management and working to a deadline. He worked out how many planets he had to cover every day in order to be finished by his next cub meeting and worked very hard to stick to his plan. He just about succeeded (with a little help from The Girl when it came to sticking minibooks into the folder) despite having been distracted by a game of Minecraft at the next-door neighbour's house before tea on the day of his cub meeting.

With a little help from his sister, he got to cubs 10 minutes late but with a completed lapbook, a real sense of achievement and a great deal of pride in his work.  He was even more proud when I picked him up and he had a new Astronomy badge for me to sew onto his uniform :)

And the days roll by...

What have we done since last Thursday? Let's see....
Friday fun maths using Ginn Extension Mathematics: Investigations, Games and Puzzles Level 4. It makes a change from their usual MEP curriculum...
Lots of weekend socialising, minecrafting and film watching.
Picture Book Explorer testing - there's a new one due out very, very soon ;)
MEP Maths.
Music practise and singing lesson..

Cubs, drama and research for a Bronze Arts Award - David Tenant anyone? 

And today, some unexpected impromptu lessons in upholstery with Nana..

 

 

Followed by some good advice on how to make a mould to make a plaster of Paris sheep in the art shop...
A bit of heron spotting (sorry for rubbish photo, I only had my phone with me)..

as well as the expected Parkour free running session that the Boy has just started :)

And the Girl? What's she be doing all day? Shhhh, she's working on a secret birthday project for her brother before she goes to band tonight ;)

Japan in January

Well. unfortunately, we're not going to Japan in real life, we just had Japan as the theme for the January session at our local Home Ed group.
The children are always really glad to see their friends at this session. It seemed like such a long time since we'd seen our HE friends because of Christmas and New Year. We saw lots of family and non-HE friends instead :)
There were a few different activities to choose from - pagoda building; manga drawing; a whole table of volcano related stuff; crafts for Boys' Day, Girls Day, New Years Festival; Origami and sushi making. They also got to watch Kiki's Delivery Service [DVD] from Studio Ghibli.
 

Giraffe and Heart

There was plenty of playing out, despite the cold and as always we had a splendid lunch.

Sushi by The Girl

I found an excellent book, JAPANESE CRAFTS FOR SCHOOLS in a charity shop, full of craft ideas and information about Japanese life, festivals and traditions. I look forward to looking at Japan for a little longer with my children and using some more of the ideas from it.Some of the crafts need to be done at home as they involve woodwork, so nice to have a book that takes craft beyond the usual paper or textile options :)
What we learnt -
- pagodas have five archtectural elements corresponding to Earth, Wind, Fire, Water and the Void.
- New Year celebrations last for 3 days. It is a very important festival in Japan.
 - how to slice a roll of sushi cleanly by wetting the knife and slicing forwards first.

Later, The Girl had a cornet lesson and they both went swimming with their Dad at Barnsley Metrodome.

Printables
Worksheets, puzzles etc
Carp craft colouring sheets etc
Lapbook 1
Lapbook 2
Calligraphy worksheets
Enchanted Learning
Colouring pages

Japan themed crafts
Using toilet roll tubes and CDs
Mount Fuji model
Japanese paper craft models
Origami Peace Crane
More Origami
Sushi making
Printable paper crafts

Books
Colour & Drawing Manga (Red)
Japan, 5000 B.C.-Today (The Great Civilizations)
Colouring and Drawing Manga (Blue)
Colour & Drawing Manga (Green)
Colour & Drawing Manga (Yellow)

Films
 

Happy New Year!