LeGo Together in one word: fascinatingly!
When a child opens a new Lego or any other construction toy box they are excited about the possibilities. Unfortunately after a few months their fancy new kit turns into random looking plastic shapes. The instruction book is long gone and the original box is nowhere to be found. This is exactly the time for the child to be creative. It’s then that a helicopter becomes a dragon and a police station turns into a castle. At this time we can introduce spacial reasoning, structural integrity, design and practical sense of geometry. Taking things apart and putting them together is a good way of teaching how to communicate with physical objects.
“Lego Together” is a team work class. The teacher introduces a topic and based on this topic kids build their own stories and characters using tips from the teacher, their own imagination and the materials they have available.
Here is what a typical “Lego Together” lesson is going to look like: At the start of the class the teacher will present the topic. It can be a historic or fictional event or a particular place and object. While presenting the information on the topic (using visual aids) the teacher will point out what parts of this event or object can be built with Lego (the teacher will give students ideas for what they can build with the lego, or how certain items can be built) .
The kids chose what they will construct. It can be a coral reef or an imaginary animal. They can group into teams and build more challenging pieces together. Older children will build mechanical pieces involving powered moving parts. In order to better implement their ideas they will use not only Lego but other construction toys such as Kinex and Technic kit as well as other building materials.
At the end of the class the children will put together everything they built into one finished installation (according to the topic of the class). At this time they will have a chance to play with what they have created. They will be able to share stories about their characters and objects. This will allow them not only to remember the facts they have learned through the lesson but also to use their imagination.
“LeGo Together” is the unique approach offered by Mathryoshka
1. It teaches kids to build without instruction using their own imagination and problem solving skills.
2. The use of different construction toys and building materials in each project helps develop innovation and engineering skills.
3. By allowing different age groups to work together on the same project it helps the children to recognize different interesting ideas and more complex technical implementation.
4. The role of the teacher is to introduce an interesting topic as well as give tips on the implementation of students ideas, rather than instructing them what to do step by step.
This will allow children to breath new life into old construction kits with their own ideas.
