Telling Stories: LEGO Education StoryStarter Set
Thursday, March 21, 2013 at 5:00AM
We all know the mesmerizing powers of LEGO bricks.
This spring our learning with LEGO has been taken to a whole new level.
The LEGO Education StoryStarter Set has brought such fun, creativity, and learning into our homeschool.
It is also making my son a better WRITER.
Yes, playing with LEGOS can help your child learn to write.
About The StoryStarter Set
LEGO Education makes this StoryStarter Set for classrooms, but we are finding it IDEAL for our homeschool use.
Essentially, it is a speaking, listening, presentation, and writing curriculum all wound into one.
It helps your children identify elements of a story, helps them create their own stories, and also put them into words with the unique StoryStarter software.
LEGO Education has a great video which explains it all!
The basic set comes with a huge variety of pieces, storage trays, stickers to help with organization, and two story starter spinners.
Using LEGO Education StoryStarter in Your Homeschool
My brain has been on overdrive considering the possibilities for this program in our homeschool.
You know I love to teach LEGO classes, right?
This would be the PERFECT curriculum for a LEGO Co-Op class, or LEGO camps.
There is a complete curriculum that comes with this set (24 project based language arts activities to be exact), along with web based software that allows your child to import pictures of their creations and then write their own stories -- all on the computer.
This type of learning really SPEAKS to my eight year old son!
Currently we have worked our way through just a handful of the lessons.
My son and a friend used the spinner to pick a set number of LEGO parts, and then tell a story with just those parts.
We spoke of the WHO, WHAT, WHY, and WHERE in a story.
We learnd about BEGINNING, MIDDLE, and END.
These are all such valuable language arts skills for our children.
What I love most is that I had the boys speak to me about their stories - that presentation component is golden!
Every single thing you need for a creative writing curriculum is put together in one marvelous LEGO box.
I (ummm, WE) are in heaven.
Using The StoryStarter Set with Read-Alouds
My husband is reading The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe aloud right now.
Of course, my son wanted to "build this story".
{I think this is modern Charlote Mason narration!}
This is also exactly what we do in Writing With Ease each week.
My children are learning to summarize, narrate, and write.
When I told him to go get the StoryStarter box and make the story, he came back with this:
Edmund meets the White Witch:
The White Witch gives Edmund Turkish Delight:
The Children at the wardrobe:
You will be hearing much from me in the future about our adventures with the LEGO Education StoryStarter Set!
For now, I want you to know this valuable resource exists.
As you plan for next year, this investment might just be worth it's weight in gold.
Questions? -- ask away! I'll try to answer any you have.
Make sure you leave your email address in the commenting form so I can respond directly to you.
Have you seen my LEGO page? I also have a LEGO Activities Pinterest board.
*I was given this product in exchange for my honest use and review of the product. No other compensation was received.
Reader Comments (15)
Cute and fun as always with LEGOS!
This is awesome! My 5 year old is reading this post with me just begging to play with LEGOs. We will definately have to use this method of storytelling. Thanks for the idea.
WOW!! thanks for sharing... my kids are doing a once a month class LEgo at our library and they love it. This would be such a great addition to our homeschooling. I will definitely check more into it.
I want it! :) My boys would love this!!! Thanks for sharing this info!!!
This looks great! I have an 8 yr old that loves Legos too. With handwriting he is easily distracted it seems. I checked out the link and there is a lot there on the website. I clicked the basic package and it said there is enough for 5 kids. I am trying to understand it all. What package do you recommend and is there one geared towards a family instead of a classroom?
Thanks!
Aimee
Thanks for this idea. I may use it for a co-op. I have a few questions: 1) Do you think 24 kids in a co-op class (4 sets) would be feasible? 2) Would I only need to buy one set with the software package/lesson plans and just the standard kit for the rest of the kids? 3) How long would you allot for each co-op class (we meet weekly)? 4) Can you do one lesson from beginning to end in one day or spread out over several days? I appreciate you letting us know about this!
I am looking into Lego Learning for my will be 8 year old and my 5 year old (to just kind of work along). Does this replace a language arts curriculum or do I need to pair it with a curriculum? I know he will love this because he loves building and creating but writing, no so much! LOL Any advice you can offer would be great. Thanks!
Mary, do you think the storystarter core set is sufficient? I'm trying to keep costs down for next year but could justify the core set price. Thanks.
We just started this with my 8 year old. He is LOVING it, but I have a few small complaints I've sent on to Lego. The software you use on the website it awesome because the kids can basically make their own Lego book! BUT You have to upload pictures you take of characters they build, then erase the background (which is very time consuming and virtually impossible for my son to do on his own), and then you can use it. But I didn't find a way to save the image so every time we want to use it we have to erase the background again! LOVE LOVE LOOOVE the idea but for the price I think Lego could do a little better and use greenscreen technology to help with the images!
My 9 year old daughter loves Legos and is already an accomplished Lego storyteller, but hates to actually sit and write her stories. :) I ordered the storyteller set for part of our language arts program for next school year, but have a logistics question. When she tells her stories, she pulls from all her different Lego sets, including the Lego games she has gotten. Do you keep all the storytelling sets separate from the "playing" Lego sets? I know I will have a hard time keeping her from stealing the mini-figs and accessories out of the set. :)
Thanks from a rule-following, everything in it's place Mama to a scatter them all, dump it in one box girly-girl. :)
You are a blessing to me! I have a 10 and 12 year old. Both of them love LEGOs but my oldest really gets into it. Since finding your blog from the iHomeschool Network I see all the possibilities for our upcoming school year. I would love to dialog with you through email on just how to accomplish what I want via LEGOs. Is that possible?
I have 4 boys and we have a ton of LEGOs already. I am soo interested in the Story Starter kit to help with a struggling 2nd grader in the language area. Since we have so many LEGOs already, I was thinking of just buying the StoryStarter Curriculum Pack and StoryVisualizer Software for $119.95 without buying the StoryStarter Core Kit ($115.95). Do you think the StoryStarter Core Kit is essential in getting started with the curriculum in considerations of cost/value? Could I do without the Core Kit, or would it be more difficult without it to kickstart the process with my sons? What are the necessary items in the Core Kit that you find you can't do without?
It is hard to determine exactly what is necessary for homeschool use. Would you be willing to offer that detail? What exactly do I need to buy for 2 students? The lego site is not very helpful. TIA.
Debbie
Can you give a brief synopsis of the difference between this and Build to Express? I am debating buying one or the other, but can't afford both. Just from a practical view, I can see storystarter being a better value since the set includes enough elements for up to 5 kids, and I have 3 to homeschool, while BTE has enough for one. I see similarities in both sets to not be able to readily distinguish the differences to make a decision. I'm a visual person but don't have the ability to see these sets in action, or to see the sotfware. How is the software different? I'd want to use Legos to enhance the books they are already reading for school. We're doing Learning Language arts through literature and I think either of these sets would help my older son (9) keep an interest in a book for longer than reading it as fast as he can! So which set would enhance reinforcing lessons learned from reading a book, and which set teaches original creative writing? I'm about to call Lego education but I thought I'd ask you first since you reviewed both.
Hello, I have the same exact question that Elizabeth had on May 6th ,2014 and would love to read the response you have made for her post. Where can I see such information? Thank you so much.