Does your little love Legos? Then this week they’re going to be super pumped because all of our activities are built (haha see what I did there?) around these versatile little blocks of creativity! There are so many fun things you can do with these little guys other than just building (although we’ll be doing plenty of that this week too!) Don’t forget to check out my toddler post “Little Builders” for some fun art ideas like making a popsicle stick Lego man and kinetic sand/Lego sensory play!
–Literacy:
-Build a rhyming word: This activity was awesome for working on letter sounds, sounding out words, rhymes AND the chunking strategy (when kids chunk 2-3 letters together to help them read rather than sounding out letter by letter). I just stuck some letter combos on single Lego Duplo blocks (sm, b, kn, cl, bl, r, fl and ock) using washi tape and had my little combine the first 7 with the -ock block to make words that rhymed with “block”. After he made each word, I had him say the letter sounds and put them together to read it.
-Build a sight word: I put letters on some single Duplo blocks using washi tape then said words and had my little spell them by listening to the sounds in the words and clipping the coordinating blocks together. We did: the, that, to, do, in, it, is , his, he, & for.
-ABC Lego stamp: Show your little an alphabet flash card and have them identify it then stamp the uppercase letter (they have less curves so they’re easier to make with straight blocks) in playdough. I got this idea from Art is Basic.
-Build your name with Legos: This one was a tad tricky for a 4 year old, but I helped him and we ended up having fun with it! You just have your little use traditional sized Lego blocks to build each letter in their name.
-Lego book list:
–Math:
-Lego adding: I used Lego Duplos to make addition sentences by placing two Duplos in a line then having my little count each bump and find the matching number on a flashcard. He placed the flash cards under the Duplos with a plus sign between them, then counted the bumps on the Duplos all together to find his answer which he also found in the flashcards and placed after the equal sign.
-Lego ten frame: I got out my ten frame (you can print one here if you don’t have one) then filled it with varying amounts of Lego blocks (one per rectangle). Then I asked my little to figure out how many more we needed to get to ten. This actually works on the “counting on” strategy for subtraction, but I didn’t go there- LoL. I got this idea from A Little Pinch of Perfect.
-Lego measuring: I gave my little 5 objects and we reviewed how to measure using units that clip together. Then I had him measure the items in Duplos. I got this idea from Montessori from the Heart.
-Build a number tower: I gave my little flashcards with the numbers 1-10 on them then had him make Lego towers to match each number. I got this idea from Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls.
–Lego STEM challenges: pro tip- these are in order of difficulty so I suggest doing them in the order they’re written.
-Build an animal: I told my little his challenge for the day was to use Legos to build an animal of his choice. I worked with him and made an alligator and a giraffe- he made a multicolored camel…hahaha!
-Build stairs: I challenged my little to build stairs that would reach the top of one of our school chairs. His first set was functional, but not super sturdy so I pretended my hand was walking up the stairs and they broke as it went up. I asked him what he could do to make the stairs more secure, and he ended up adding several supports to the bottom.
-Build a bridge: This is a perfect activity to follow the stair building because your little can use their knowledge of stair making to help build their bridge. I told my little his challenge was to build a bridge people could walk up, over, and down to cross a river (I used an ice pack for the river).
-Build a tower as tall as you: I thought this would be pretty easy, but it actually took some time because my little just threw his first tower together as fast as he could and it wasn’t sturdy enough to support the top and fell over. It ended up being a great engineering activity because each time it toppled (oh yes, it definitely fell over more than once!) we had a discussion about where in the tower it was weak and how to build it to make that spot more strong. We had some great conversations about building sturdy bases, how a tower of larger blocks is more sturdy than a tower of single blocks and how you have to make sure your blocks clip together firmly to avoid weak spots in your structure.
–Art:
-Popsicle stick Lego head: I glued two horizontal popsicle sticks to a strip of paper, then had my little glue vertical popsicle sticks to them to fill in the square head shape. Then when they were dry, I had my little paint them yellow. When THAT was dry, I added a face with a sharpie.
–Shopping/supply list:
- Lego Duplos (or other large Lego style blocks)
- Legos (original)
- playdough
- number flashcards
- yellow popsicle sticks
littlelovesandlearning.com 
