Lovely LEGO Club
/One of the most successful, least time intensive programs that I do at the library is LEGO Club. I got the idea from some amazingly innovative children's librarian that I can't remember (It was either Amy from The Show Me Librarian or Abbe's School Library Journal article) . Anyway, I asked our community if they would be willing to donate some LEGOs for an upcoming program thinking that we'd get some and we'd have to buy some. NOPE. We got a TON of donated LEGOS. Even my aunt pitched in - sending me a medium sized tote full of my cousin's LEGOs. (She told him that when they had kids, she'd buy the kids newer cooler LEGOs.)
I started in the fall and scheduled LEGO club to meet once a month. The month before we started, I badgered my mom to let me borrow my and my brother's LEGOs that she's been storing in her basement. I put together all the sets that I could (Thank you so much Mom for keeping all of the LEGO instructions) and put them in our glass display case with a flyer. I've toyed with the idea of having it twice a month, but I'm not quite ready to throw another program on my schedule. We meet from 4-5 pm (which I know doesn't allow the kids with working moms and dads to always get here). As I'm building along side the kids, I think sometimes that an hour isn't long enough, but I don't want to overdo it either.
Here's how we do it. Our custodian donated three rugged blankets that I spread on the floor. I dump half of the LEGOs on one and half on the other and put all the minifigs on the third. Some of the kids ONLY want to play with "the guys" as they call them, but most like to build. We did purchase ten big green baseplates and I'm hoping to get more as the group grows. I do keep the baseplates separate from the regular LEGOs so that when the kids come in they can grab a baseplate and go to town building. I put a challenge or theme up on the board for them, but tell them they don't have to build whatever they're building if they don't want to.
Here are 25 LEGO club themes that we've done* or are going to do:
- Houses
- Animals
- Evil Villain Lairs
- Vehicles
- Islands
- Space ships
- Saving the Day!
- Under the Sea
- Summer
- Bugs
- Castles
- Towers
- Mazes
- Brick Cities
- Bridges
- Planes
- Ziplines (this one looks really cool)
- Robots
- Mad Scientists
- Dinosaurs
- Candy Land
- Monsters
- Train
- Fantasy
- Holiday
I usually build along with the kids unless there are a lot of kids or there are some particularly needy children. I think it's a good example for the kids and for the adults. Playing in any fashion is best if it's collaborative, and especially collaborative with an adult who can add to the conversation and help to build knowledge.
I have several medium height bookshelves on which I display everyone's creation. The shelves are high enough where adults and elementary aged children can see them, but not easily touch. I wish I could put them down lower, but I don't want anything to be broken or taken or tampered with. They stay up until the next time we have LEGO club. Easy peasy.