Raising Jordans

 Lego Build is an activity I developed for some of my sweet special education students. That being said, fine motor skill development is critical for children of all abilities. Making this activity valuable for general ed classrooms or home learning as well.  Students will develop their visual-spatial abilities, as well as their fine motor control as they replicate the patterns.

You can head online to extend this activity. Google has created an incredible digital Lego workspace, Build with Chrome, where your students could also build their own towers digitally.  Some fine motor movement is involved in manipulating a mouse and typing, but the digital method won’t promote fine motor development to the same degree.

In my own classroom, I have used Lego Build as an independent, stand-alone lesson for those needing fine motor practice, or as an “early finisher” or reward activity. The activity is adaptable for both one-on-one intervention sessions, as well as small group settings.  I found that my students loved the activity and excuse to make Lego “educational”, so it quickly became a reward for my students who loved to build.

Since this is a repeat activity, I laminated multiple color copies to save having to photocopy new handouts each lesson. In addition, I have had colleagues use this resource in her kindergarten general education classrooms by laminating a couple copies and storing them in her Lego bin. The resource served as a way to help inspire students who don’t feel confident building from their imagination.

Materials Needed

• One handout per student
• A variety of Lego bricks (including multiple eight, six and four sized pieces)

Instructions

• Set students up with a handout and multiple Lego bricks
• Explain the guidelines of the activity to the students
  • Guidelines
    • Look at each tower on the hand out
    • Use the bricks you were given to recreate the image in real life
    • Talk with a peer or teacher to have them check your work to see if you were able to create the image.
    • Try to correct your image if need be
• Extensions: Have your students…
  • Build their own versions online
  • Create their own Lego towers by drawing them out and having friend attempt them
  • Build traditional shapes (triangles, squares, rectangles, circles etc.) and draw how they were able to construct them. This will tie this activity to the common core math standards

How this activity aligns with Common Core Standards:

• Math.Content.K.G.B.5
  Model shapes in the world by building shapes from components (e.g., sticks and clay balls) and drawing shapes.