Building Creativity and Imagination With LEGO - BuildToExpress Giveaway
Wednesday, September 18, 2013 at 5:00AM
LEGO Education® materials have enriched our homeschool in untold ways.
From learning to write stories, to learning about simple and motorized mechanisms and simple machines, it is safe to say that anything from LEGO Education® is a tremendous learning resource!
The most recent resource we have been using, BuildToExpress, is specifically designed to stimulate your child's creative thinking and imagination.
About BuildToExpress
The BuildToExpress product we have been using contains two parts:
- BuildToExpress Core Set The core set contains 200 elements that developers have carefully selected to peak students' interest in creating metaphors and telling stories. The set also comes with a building plate and a convenient storage container.
- BuildToExpress Guide & Activity Pack The guide and activity pack is what truly makes this a unique resource. While designed for classroom use, we have been using it on an individual basis (but I bet it would be FABULOUS for a co-op class, too!). There is a teacher's guide included, as well as a DVD Rom that includes all of the printables for 30 challenge cards and a challenge card creator.
These two resources together allow my son to use these LEGO bricks to think more deeply about literature we are reading, use his creative skills and imagination, and SO MUCH MORE.
Watch this video from LEGO Education® about BuildToExpress. You can also visit this page to read all about BuildToExpress.
*Note: This is done from a classroom perspective - as I have (and will address later) emphasized, this product can easily be adapted for use in your homeschool.
Challenge Cards
The challenge cards contain different cross curricular topics to get your student thinking and creating.
Since we love literature, I chose a literature challenge card set to share with you - and this was also the first activity Grant did with BuildToExpress.
We used The Sword in The Tree (a book Grant just finished), and talked about the book and Grant began to build.
I love how this first card encouraged him to THINK about the main character and other characters in the book.
Grant built this simple scene of Lord Weldon trying to escape the dungeon in Weldon Castle.
We had a great dialogue while he was building.
*I know from also having a seventh grader that these verbal and creative skills will translate into STRONG WRITING in the years to come!
You can see the remaining challenge cards in this activity - and with each one he talked with me more and continued to build. I can see us repeating this process with future books.
Challenge cards 3 and 4 are IMAGINE and CONCLUDE.
There are many more challenge cards that come in the BuildToExpress Activity Guide, and you can even create your own challenge cards.
What We Love about BuildToExpress
I could write a very long list, but I'll just limit this to a few:
- The set comes in a compact box that is easy to store. The pieces are engaging and A LOT can built just from a free build with the 200 elements included.
- The guide and activity pack help me organize an entire LESSON surrounding the LEGO bricks. Grant doesn't even realize we are working on elements of literature, or a science concept. All he knows is LEGO!
- LEGO Education® leaves no stone unturned. They give you MORE THAN ENOUGH direction, challenge cards, and teaching ideas.
- The potential in our homeschool is something I love, but I also love the potential to use this in a co-op or LEGO club setting. It can work well with individuals or groups.
We have just scratched this surface with this resource, and I am SO excited!
Reader Comments (254)
Oh. My. Word! My 8 year old daughter is a Lego Maniac! She would just bloom with something like this. She loves all things Lego, which is why i started following your blog. :) We would use this for school and she would be in heaven.
Thank you for posting!
We are first year homeschoolers and my adhd boys seem to do much better with tasks that are hands on and that engage their active imaginations. I think this could finally convince them that homeschool is fun and that they aren't "missing out" by not being in public school anymore. :)
We play legos at least once a day..the boys would thrive with this.
my little men are ALL lego fanatics and this would be a perfect fit in our curriculum!!!
my son has ODD and ADHD and uses Legos for everything! Story telling, math, you name it! This collection would make a great addition to our curriculum!
My kids love legos and I'd like to use them for school learning!
We can't get enough of LEGOs and we also love literature!!! So, what a treat to be able to combine two of our family's favorite activities. Thanks for the chance to win.
My son needs this! Since finding Legos his math skills have grown leaps and bounds.
I think following directions is the best lesson taught by Legos.
I am entering for a friend who is very experienced at using Legos to overcome social challenges while developing creativity and spatial relation skills.
Legos are a favorite in our house! We would use them in conjunction with literature. The challenge cards look great.
We love Lego. So many possibilities.
We just started using Legos in our homeschool this year and LOVE how it enriches learning. I see my boys using this set to create scenes from the books we read.
I would love this to use with my boys. I have a 5th grade son and a Kinder son and they love Legos. Having something like this to enhance our history and literature lessons in our homeschool would be so wonderful! Thank you for the opportunity!
The first thing that came to mind was building something for a geography project (he's studying diamond mining right now.)
--Gena
We just started to homeschool so the possibilities are endless!
I think this would be a ton of fun to add to our read alouds because I have so many boys who need to fidget and do things with their hands while listening. We would read a challenge card before reading the story so they could have things in mind and be free to build as they listen.
You could use this to re enact history stories, Bible stories, writing, math problems etc.
Would love to win this. We just started homeschooling 2 of our 5 kiddos and they love Legos. The sets on the website are so expensive so this would be great to win! Thank you so much!
Love
Jill
My 8 year old loves Legos!! He likes to build police sets and such! Great learning tools!! Thank you for your website, we enjoy it!! :)
My 8 year old loves Legos!! He likes to build police sets and such! Great learning tools!! Thank you for your website, we enjoy it!! :)
They would love it! They would want it to replace everything else we have now! :-)
I would use this with my son to help his writing. He wants to be an author someday!
My kids would want to create stories every day if they had this set! They love LEGOS!!
I have 7 kids and they all love legos they usually start building things from like 2 years old , is the main toy in the house ...but i have being trying to implement them more and more in our school day , so i can see how it would help .