LEGO Club!

Earlier in February, we started an after school LEGO club at Harrison School!  We've had two meetings already and so far, it's been fantastic!!

 

Why did we decide to start this club?  There are so many benefits to building with LEGOS.  When students build with LEGOS, they have improved fine motor skills.  They learn cooperation and problem solving skills.  They have increased creativity and a boost in confidence.  And, most important, the students have FUN while all of this learning is taking place!!  Building with LEGOS is the perfect STEM activity for elementary age students.

Logistics of our club: In order to purchase our LEGOS, we started a Donor's Choose campaign.  Local families and strangers from far away donated to our project which became fully funded in January.  Also, two families saw our Donor's Choose project and decided to donate a VERY large amount of LEGOS that they already had.  Combined with the LEGOS purchased through Donor's Choose project, we had more than enough to start our club!

Our club meets two times per month after school for one hour in the library.  We opened the club up to students in grades 1-4 and we started with 30 members (with 20 more on the waiting list).  After our first meeting, we decided to bump up our numbers to 42 because we realized that we had the space to accommodate more students.  We probably won't be able to add any more because the library is quite full with 42.  For next year, we may split up the club into smaller grades (i.e. grades 1-2, 3-4) so that we can accommodate more students.  During our first meeting, we had the students decide on appropriate rules to help our club run smooth.  We also begin each meeting with a small snack.

Each meeting will have a different theme.  Students can building something related to the theme, or they can build something different.  Our first theme was "build something that flies" and our second theme was "build a creature".  If students decide to build something related to the theme, we will display it on the counter around the circulation desk for all to see until our next meeting.

  

It is amazing to see the students working together, using their creativity, being totally engaged the entire time, and having FUN!!  At the end of our second meeting, we asked the students what they liked about LEGO club so far.  Here are some of their responses:  "being creative" "building with a friend" "the themes" "being able to build anything, not just the theme" and "seeing what everyone else builds".

We can't wait to see all of the great ideas that our students come up with in future meetings!