Have a budding engineer in your family or your classroom? Legos can be a great way to engage their mind in building things and seeing how their favorite characters or landscapes come together. The activities below have a variety of ideas for how elementary-aged children can use Lego to express their creativity and grow their brains in a hands-on way. You never know, your child or student might become the next great architect!
Academic
1. Lego Books
Read these captivating books aloud to your students and have them play along and build the story using Legos. This is a great way for students to connect written words to visual images.
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2. Sight Words
Designed for little ones still learning their sight words, this is the perfect hands-on way to help them gain practice. Write individual letters on each Lego block and have them build towers of sight words.
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3. Number Cards
Also designed for young learners, this activity allows students to practice forming numbers using Lego blocks. This is a great hands-on activity for them to remember what numbers look like and will help them in later grades when they reach harder math concepts.
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4. STEM Activities for Young Engineers
This article features ten cool STEM projects, including cool science experiments, that you can do with your students to engage their brain as well as their creative side. Activities include building a helicopter and windmill which is sure to thrill your budding engineer.
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5. Animal Habitat
Students will create their own world for their favorite animals while learning about their natural habitat in this cool activity. Pair this activity with a discussion about elements of animal habitats so that students understand why their favorite animal needs certain things to survive and thrive.
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6. Fraction Games
One of the best ways to teach kids about fractions is by having them use fraction strips to represent them. This activity has students using Lego blocks to show off their numerator and denominator skills by practicing making fractions with Lego blocks.
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7. Groundhog Day
Will the groundhog see his shadow? Are you in for more a long winter or an early spring? Find out in this Lego experiment where students will build a groundhog before moving it at different angles and positions to make the groundhog see his shadow.
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8. Lego Math
Looking for ways to explore math using Legos? This activity provides something for everyone! This batch of math challenges is your chance to explore over 30 math activities for kids from preschool right up to sixth grade.
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9. Lego Bar Graphs
Continue the math fun by having students use Legos to make bar graphs in this hands-on math activity. This activity is a fun Lego idea for students to see exactly how they can represent all types of data in a visual way.
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10. Categorizing Legos
Students learn how to categorize shapes and other objects. Have them start with Legos which they can sort by color, size, and shape. Students will then need to make justifications about why they categorized their Legos in the way they did- helping to develop a rich class discussion.
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11. Lego Flags
Travel the world from the comfort of your home or classroom with this insightful Lego flag activity. Students will create flags of countries from around the world using Lego blocks. Take this to the next level by having a world showcase where students learn facts about their nation to go along with their beautiful creations.
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12. Superhero Math
It's a bird. It's a plane. It's superhero math with Legos! Make learning math fun by engaging kids in their favorite cartoons. Students can use Legos to build their very own superheroes while learning about area and perimeter.
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13. Intro to Architecture
Students will create the next great skyscraper in this activity that introduces them to Lego architecture. The main purpose of Legos is that students can build assorted buildings till their heart is content! This article contains ideas on how to replicate famous buildings and has links to books if you want to add a little something extra.
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14. Solar System
Have students build their very own solar system out of Legos and learn about all of the planets in the sky.
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15. Lego Addition and Subtraction
Have students practice their addition and subtraction facts while winding along this colorful Lego path. Students will really enjoy doing math as they race to beat their peers.
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Crafts
16. Pen Holder
Need a place to store all of your student's pens and pencils? Have them make their very own pen holder out of Legos. This activity even shows you how to put a picture in the holder to brighten up their day!
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17. Inside Out
Are your students' big fans of the Disney movie Inside Out? Use this article to show them how to build the emotional characters out of Lego. You could even encourage your students to use them to express their feelings or reenact the story.
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18. Lego Puzzles
This article shows a new way to puzzle! Print your child's favorite photo on a series of Lego blocks and they will have fun putting it back together.
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19. Parakeet
Does your child want a bird as a pet, but you're not sure they're quite ready yet? Use this Lego creature as a steppingstone where they can have a trusty companion without all the mess and responsibility.
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20. Dinosaur
Travel back in time with this post about building dinosaurs from Legos. Kids can choose from five different dinosaurs to build or make them all to have a whole dino family.
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21. Unicorn
Time for some magical creatures! This article walks kids through a step-by-step process on how to make their very own Lego unicorn in ten different ways! They can keep them all or give them away as gifts to their friends.
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22. Christmas Maze
It's the most wonderful time of the year! Get students excited about Christmas by making this holiday-themed Lego maze. They can build it any way they like and see if they can get Santa and his friends to the sleigh in time.
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23. Lego City
Your child is now the mayor of a brand-new city that they get to create from scratch. Use Legos to create their dream city and all they want in it- making it a place that everyone will want to move to.
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Challenges
24. 30-Day Lego Challenge
Great for brain breaks in the middle of the day, or for summer vacation, this article has 30 different Lego building ideas that students can try. After a month of Lego building, they are sure to consider a future in architecture!
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25. Lego Challenge Cards
Are 30 days not enough? Print out these challenge cards for Lego construction- each with a different creation for students to make and let them go crazy with Lego fever.
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26. Lego Challenge Spinner
Keep the suspense with this printable Lego challenge spinner that has a heap of exciting activities such as building a robot or a rainbow. Students can take turns spinning the dial to let the fates decide what their next creation will be.
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27. Lego Melton Crayon Art
Melted crayon art is all the rage in the child craft world, and this author upped the ante by adding Legos to it! Glue some colorful logos onto the top of the canvas before melting the same color crayons below to create a beautiful masterpiece.
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Games
28. Lego Pictionary
Break out the art skills with this adaptation of Pictionary. Instead of drawing, students will use Legos to recreate the given word and try to get their teammates to guess what it is before time runs out.
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29. Ring Toss
Play this popular carnival game in the classroom by buying rings and making columns out of Legos. Kids will enjoy setting this up and figuring out how to make viable columns and then actually getting to play the game.
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30. Lego Games
Looking for even more Lego games? This blog post has games where kids can excitingly engage their building skills.
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Engineering
31. Zipline
While kids might not be zip lining through a beautiful forest, they will still enjoy creating this Lego zip line. They can send small objects from one end to the other, experimenting with just how much they can move.
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32. Simple Machines
Get kids more practice with simple machines by making the Lego models in this article. It includes machines such as Lego balloon cars to get kids excited about fun STEM activities.
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