Lego in the classroom: How to use it in a fun way

Playing is essential for child development. Whether at home, on the street, in the park or at school, the child is always active, expending energy, looking for news, making discoveries and, through play, acquiring knowledge.

Playing is not only a form of distraction, it is also a means of learning. Through games and games, the child learns: colors, shapes and movements; develops logical thinking and mathematical reasoning; stimulates cognitive and motor development; learns to relate to other people and perform group activities; enhances creativity, playfulness and symbolic thinking.

See too:Using LEGOs to Explain Mathematics to Children

Among the toys that exist on the market, Lego is undoubtedly one of the ones that most contributes to the development of the child, in all the aspects mentioned above. And it is often widely used for pedagogical purposes.

Among the many benefits of using Lego in games, we can highlight the following:

• Motricity: the most delicate muscle movements, defined by fine motor skills, such as finger and hand movements, for example, are constantly developed in handling the pieces;
• Math Skills: making constructions with the blocks encourages logical reasoning and notions of space and proportion. Simple mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction and division are easily learned using Lego;
• Cognition: to build objects with the building blocks, the child needs to have problem solving, planning and organization skills;
• Creativity: one of the most obvious benefits gained from playing with Lego. The child is encouraged to think, imagine, create, whatever he wants. The creative possibilities are endless.

How to use Lego in the classroom?

There are lots of fun ways to use lego in the classroom, and keeping kids' attention is a excellent pedagogical instrument, and helps to work with the most varied disciplines, facilitating the acquisition of apprenticeship.

Let's highlight some fun ways to learn with the use of Lego in activities:

• Mathematical Operations: use cards with simple mathematical operations (like 2+4) and colorful building blocks, and guide the child to assemble the pieces according to the suggested operation;

• Color count and identification: ideal for children between one and a half and three years old, who are learning to count and identify colors;
• Literacy: paste letters, or words, on the pieces and guide the child to form words and phrases from the assembly of the blocks;
• Puzzle: Similar to the previous activity, glue parts of the figures onto the Lego pieces and help the child assemble the blocks to form the figure. It is also an excellent option for teaching about parts of the human body;
• Story illustration: tell a story and ask the child to create a picture related to what was narrated. The opposite can also be done: ask the child to create a figure, and tell a story about what he built. This greatly encourages the imagination;
• Notions of symmetry and proportion: with different assemblies, the child can evaluate aspects such as differences in size and number of blocks that were used in each construction.

These were just a few examples of how to use lego in the classroom, in a fun way, and to promote learning more easily. But as the possibilities of working with building blocks are countless, the educator's creativity also counts when formulating educational games.

Using Lego at school is an excellent pedagogical strategy. But teachers are not the only educators, on the contrary, parents are largely responsible for their children's learning.

Therefore, parents, develop these activities at home as well. It's a great way to interact with children and encourage them to acquire knowledge.