{"id":12706,"date":"2018-05-16T16:18:57","date_gmt":"2018-05-16T20:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/?p=12706"},"modified":"2025-02-03T11:59:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T16:59:52","slug":"steam-educational-activities-learning-lego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/steam-educational-activities-learning-lego\/","title":{"rendered":"STEAM Educational Activities – Learning with LEGO"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"lego<\/p>\n

A respresentative from LEGO\u00ae<\/sup> came to S&S for a workshop to feature the LEGO\u00ae<\/sup>\u00a0STEAM Park set. In this workshop, our team learned concepts related to STEAM and Makerspace, and the importance of incorporating these activities into your classroom or afterschool program.<\/p>\n

LEGO is educational, STEAM focused, and stimulates different areas of children’s minds when they play with these classic manipulatives. Learn several fun, interactive and engaging activities you can use with this new set, and discover how to incorporate LEGO in a Makerspace.<\/p>\n

Introducing LEGO\u00ae\u00a0<\/sup>Education<\/h2>\n

The mission of LEGO Education is to stimulate children’s curiosity to explore together and learn\u00a0through play. For the activities in the workshop, we focused on how play is important to preschool age kids from 3 to 5 years old.\u00a0Playful experiences in the early years allows you to aquire the\u00a0critical skills for learning throughout your lifetime.<\/p>\n

“Play has a lot to do with the way that preschoolers learn. They\u00a0use their brains in different ways, and our goal is to support them\u00a0in that play experience through the LEGO education solutions” –\u00a0Daniella Bonazzoli, Sr. Partnership Manager at LEGO<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5 Characteristics of Playful Experiences:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
    \n
  • Joyful<\/li>\n
  • Meaningful<\/li>\n
  • Actively engaging<\/li>\n
  • Iterative<\/li>\n
  • Socially interactive<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n
Early indicators include:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
    \n
  • Attention<\/li>\n
  • Self control<\/li>\n
  • Spacial understanding<\/li>\n
  • Motivation and confidence<\/li>\n
  • Problem solving and reflection<\/li>\n
  • Perspective taking and collaboration<\/li>\n
  • Imagination and symbolic representation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Ice Breaker Activity<\/h2>\n

    \"lego<\/p>\n

    Building a Duck<\/h2>\n

    This first hands-on activity is a perfect ice breaker for learning through play using just a few LEGO bricks. Our team is instructed to build a duck using the 6 bricks they were provided with. The challenge is to use all of the bricks and build the duck in 1 minute. There are no instructions – everyone must use their memory and imagination.<\/p>\n

    After the time was up, everyone looked around the room and noticed that no two ducks were the same.\u00a0This starts a great discussion on how each person has their own imagination. Some may decide to use one of the orange pieces as the feet instead of the bill, or as a tail. The best part is, there is no wrong answer, so it is a very inclusive activity.<\/p>\n

    NOTE: For this activity, you can choose any small amount of LEGO pieces and have your group make something simple, like a tree, duck, or any other common item\/animal. (These pieces do not come in the STEAM Park pack.)<\/p>\n

    \"Lego<\/p>\n

    Play is Learning<\/h2>\n

    Without realizing it, the activity allows you to use 24 different skills in your brain, when building with only 6 bricks. Your brain is subconsiously activating skills including mental imagery, spatial abilities, fine motor skills, cognitive flexibility, and kinesthetic awareness.<\/p>\n

    This leads to some great points about how building blocks like LEGO can improve the following skills:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Physical Abilities<\/strong> – kids are always getting up and moving when\u00a0they are playing. Balance, movement, spatial understanding<\/li>\n
    • Cognitive<\/strong> – problem solving, flexible thinking, building effective\u00a0strategies, keeping information in mind, following rules<\/li>\n
    • Emotional<\/strong> – self belief, confidence, self control, reflection,\u00a0perserverence, understanding, experimenting and regulating emotions<\/li>\n
    • Creative<\/strong> – coming up with new ideas, imagining things, using\u00a0representations, transforming existing ideas into new ideas, making\u00a0associations, using symbols<\/li>\n
    • Social abilities<\/strong> – collaborating, communication, understanding\u00a0perspectives, negotiating rules, handling conflicts, building\u00a0empathy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      LEGO STEAM Park Set<\/h2>\n

      \"Lego<\/p>\n

      The LEGO\u00ae STEAM Park set was launched in November. In the video below, you will see how this set can help kids with role play, problem solving, probability, cause and\u00a0effect, and making predictions. It helps to build and foster curious minds, confident storytellers, social\u00a0skills, creativity, problem solvers, and imagination.<\/p>\n

      STEAM Park is designed to help teachers develop children’s science,\u00a0technology, engineering, art, and math skills (STEAM). But it’s more than just an acronym. STEAM is a philosophy and a way of\u00a0thinking that helps children to integerate knowledge across\u00a0disciplines, encouraging them to think in a connected and holistic\u00a0way. It helps\u00a0children to explore, observe, ask questions, predict,\u00a0and integrate their learning, and\u00a0compliments established apporoaches to early childhood\u00a0education.<\/p>\n

      The set\u00a0allows children to experiment, test ideas, and answer questions.\u00a0Without knowing it, kids are learing and building their vocabulary. This pack is also the perfect example of dramatic play. Kids can imagine they are going to the fair, going on the rides and enjoying themselves. Below are some key learning values that are learned using this set.<\/p>\n

      This is a great video to show before the next two activities:<\/p>\n