Let's Go Lego!

Activity 1: 30 Piece Build
Prior to the program, 35 baggies all containing identical pieces were compiled.  At the program each participant was given one bag.  They had 15 minutes to use all the pieces and build something.  We then went around the room looking at each creation.  It was interesting to see how different the items were considering they all had the same pieces to work with.

These are the pieces each participant had with which to work.

Room Set Up

Building

Bridge

Chair

Activity 2: 1 Cup Build
Next we gave the kids 1 cup of pieces and had them build something with their pieces.  This time everyone had different amounts and kinds of pieces.

Activity 3: Theme Building Challenge--Outdoors
Here we had the kids build something (anything) that could be found outdoors.  This is where they had the most fun and the most creativity and play came.

Cherry Tree

Attendance: 23, 8

Evaluation: Lego programs are always super easy to pull together.  Having specific tasks gave some nice structure to the program but also allowed for creativity and free choice.  They loved every part.  For the second session we removed the one cup build as it was too similar to the first activity.  This allowed more time for them to work on their outdoor scenes.

Build It

This is always a fun, easy program to do.  We had five different stations for the kids to do.

A view of the chaos!

Station 1: Household Challenge
We challenged the kids to build a house using nothing except two sheets of paper, two pieces of tape, two band-aids and two paperclips.  The original challenge we found online called for two pieces of gum, but we thought that might be a bit too messy and gross.

Getting creative

Station 2: Toothpick and Marshmallow Building

Station 3: Lego and Lego Challenge

I put together three different groups of bags, each group contained the exact same selection of bricks.  Kids could choose A, B, or C and see what they could build with the Lego bricks within.  Each child came up with a completely different construction.  It was fun to see what they could come up with.

Station 4: Cup Building
We purchased 4 80 count 3 oz cups from Target and let the kids build whatever they wanted with them.

10 across on the bottom.

Station 5: Marble Roller Coasters
This was by far the favorite station and it was awesome to see the kids working together to make the roller coasters work.  The pipe insulation was left over from a Science Camp program we did during the summer.  I purchased 14 tubes from Lowe's and cut them in half.  The kids used masking tape to adhere them to walls, tables, chairs, garbage cans, the floor and each other to create coasters.

Thumbs up and ready to go.  Notice the crossover with the cups!

Yay!  It worked!  Love seeing their enthusiasm.

Brothers working together.

This was a huge group effort as the coaster went into the next room.

Evaluation: This program is super easy and fun to do and definitely is an unprogram!  I think it will become part of our regular rotation.  We'll need to purchase more pipe insulation to accommodate all the kids we have in our first sessions.  Luckily, it is inexpensive!  The Lego Challenge was fun, but I forgot to get a picture of all the completed objects.  Next time I might also make each challenge color coded so that all the A bags contain the exact same red Lego bricks, B bags green and so on.  The Household Object challenge was neat, but I don't know if we'll repeat it.  They didn't seem to get the concept that they had to use all the objects.  Some only used a few.  Toothpick and marshmallow building is always a hit, although the marshmallows were not stale enough making building more sticky and challenging.

Attendance: 34, 17