Gurukul School

Lego Bricks

Today modern schools are using LEGO as an effective learning tool with kids. Even since its invention, LEGO bricks have been played with by children worldwide through generations. It acts as a powerful learning tool that boosts creativity, eye-hand coordination, focus, planning, problem solving ability and many other skills.

LEGO became so popular among kids around the world that the company decided to integrate educational products and curricula to allow teachers to use them in their classrooms. This article discusses different ways in which LEGO can be used in the classroom as an effective learning tool.

LEGO bricks can be used to develop a number of skills in children. 

Some other areas where LEGO can be used as a powerful tool are discussed here.

LEGO toys can be used to teach students about counting and measuring. This can be done by connecting a bunch of LEGO bricks and making students count them one at a time. This can be made more interactive by challenging students to measure different items around the room. Putting numbers onto LEGO bricks can help students learn numerals in the process. LEGO can also be used to make students visualize arithmetic and multiplication problems. Kids can learn by counting studs on the top of each brick, identifying which brick has the most studs, and sorting the bricks in order of 'size', from those with the lowest number of studs to those with the highest. If kids practice adding the studs on multiple bricks to find the total and subtracting them, they will learn addition and subtraction. A 4x2 LEGO brick has 8 studs on the top while an 8x6 plate has 48 studs. This way children can be shown the link with their multiplication table or make a LEGO multiplication chart. Similarly, LEGO can be effectively used to teach about fractions, sorting, statistics, patterns, area and perimeter, 3D shapes, symmetry and algebra.

LEGO can be used to illustrate a historical story. Students can be made to build a model using LEGO bricks from any chapter in history or mythology. This will make them get actively engaged with lessons from history or mythology rather than merely read about them in a textbook. Students can also be encouraged to tell stories of their own. For instance, students can create few fun characters and add props to a scene, like a princess, a prince or a pirate fighting each other next to a LEGO ship. LEGO provides curriculum to promote writing and literacy skills with the StoryStarter kits which give students a little structure to start with while constructing their stories. They come with characters, sets to build, and boards upon which to construct the stories. The kits give plenty of opportunity for creativity, and subtly teach the art of story construction. 

Children can be effectively taught the English language using LEGO. There can be a letter building exercise in which letters are created using these bricks. Children can then be asked to build words using those letters. This also helps in word recognition. They can also be given a set of words and asked to count the number of syllables in each word. If a word has three syllables, they can stick three bricks together to represent it. If a word has four syllables, they can stick four bricks together and likewise. On the other hand, children can be taught various forms of art. They can create a mosaic using 1x1 bricks. They can learn printing by pressing the bricks into plasticene to make print pictures. They can also learn painting by dipping bricks into paint and create patterns with them on paper or cloth. 

Using LEGO, children can be taught about building construction and technologies. They can be asked to recreate local landmarks or famous buildings using tjese bricks. Architecture sets could be used as a starting point for this. Students can be challenged to form groups and create the highest tower or the strongest bridge using a given set of bricks. These bricks can also be used to design furniture or a vehicle that will safely carry an egg over a long distance. Children can play the 'Roll a Dice' game in which they form pairs or groups and take turns to roll a die. After rolling, they build a tower with that many studs as the number in the dice. The child with the highest tower, that doesn't fall over, wins. 

LEGO is an incredibly creative toy, that enthralls and captivates the hearts of many, has been a staple in households for years and has limitless enjoyment and educational value. From teaching coding to modelling texts for literature analysis, it can be used to support work in a number of different curriculum areas.