Free Early Years activity: Boats

In this activity children aged between 3 and 5 will be demonstrating flexibility, imagination, and inventiveness in approaching tasks and activities. They will learn about setting goals and developing and following through on plans. They will also represent people, places or things through drawings, movement and three-dimensional objects.

The recommended resource for this activity is the LEGO® DUPLO® Creative Builder Set.

Ask the students to name some things they might see if they visited a lake or the ocean – for example, animals, birds, fish, boats and so forth. Ask students to explain things they might do on or near a lake or ocean.

Students create the boat and the lighthouse using the activity card. They can then create other objects that would be found in or near a lake or ocean. Ask students to create a story that explains what activities are going on in and around the water – a lake or ocean.

Then the children can build a town scenario and carry out further activities.

This 20-minute-long activity covering language and arts topics, is aimed at children aged 3 to 5. You can download the lesson plan by clicking on the images at the bottom of this page.

LEGO DUPLO resources can help meet Learning Values such as literacy, numeracy, knowledge and self-expression. For more information and resources, visit the LEGO Education website.

Free Early Years activity: Directionality

In this activity children aged between 3 and 5 will learn about directionality, order and position of objects such as up, down, in front and behind. They will sort, classify and serialise objects using attributes such as colour, shape or size.

The new LEGO® DUPLO® Playground Set is the recommended resource to use with this activity, but you could use any DUPLO base boards, bricks and people you have available.

Students are asked to form a line and then say who is in front of them and who is behind. Then place red, yellow, green, orange, brown and blue bricks on a large building plate and show them to the students. Ask students which colour brick is above, below, next to (and so forth) different bricks.

Students are then asked to create a scene in a playground with the DUPLO bricks. Then they are asked to explain where elements are located in relation to each other using the words before, behind, beneath, in front and so forth. They are then asked to carry out other tasks, such as comparing the height of the elements in the playground.

This 30-minute-long lesson plan covering literacy and numeracy topics, is aimed at students aged 3 to 5. You can download the lesson plan by clicking on the images at the bottom of this page.

LEGO DUPLO resources can help meet Learning Values such as literacy, numeracy, knowledge and self-expression. For more information and resources, visit the LEGO Education website.

 

Get more out of your LEGO® DUPLO® sets!

We all know how much fun children get out of playing and exploring with LEGO® Education LEGO® DUPLO® bricks and people but they can be used for so much more!

To help you get started we have put together four pages packed with ideas that can be downloaded for free here.

The pages show you how you can use your existing bricks and figures to help children develop skills in maths, language, personal, social and emotional development and self expression.

The activities use LEGO DUPLO, but for slightly older children or for those who need more of a challenge, these ideas can be replicated using the smaller System bricks.

Not only will they extend the learning in your nursery or classroom but they will also ensure your children have lots of fun at the same time too!

And if you’ve got some bright ideas for using LEGO DUPLO in your class, why not share them with other professionals by contacting us?

Happy learning!

New LEGO® DUPLO® set is “fantastic”

At LEGO® Education we always like to get independent feedback on our products. This review is by Emma, a mum of 3, who runs her own website to help other mums find the best products for their children’s development. She tests the products with her own children aged 2, 4 and 5. Here’s what she had to say:

“I know that I’ve said it before but we LOVE LEGO® and DUPLO®. Both are played with daily in our house and I can’t say that about any other toy. I was thrilled to be offered some DUPLO sets from LEGO Education to review.

“The Creative Builder set is recommended for children aged 2+ and comes with 124 pieces including 2 base stations and 4 double-sided Creative Builder cards. The base station allows two children to work at one base. This would be great for the Guess Who game we made last year and it has been lovely watching my children work closely together without arguing.

“The number bricks have been great for my 2-year-old, who is just starting to recognise numbers. She has already made a great start trying to count, but seeing the DUPLO bricks stacking up in order has made her much more confident. For my 4-year-old we took it a step further and put bricks together to help her recognise numbers between 11 and 19.”

Emma goes on to say: “I’m sure you can tell that I thought this set was fantastic, and I’m so excited about the possibilities. Tomorrow H and I are going to try to make up stories, I can’t wait to see what she comes up with.”

To read the rest of this review visit www.mummymummymum.com. Find out more about the Creative Builder set on the LEGO Education website.

New ways to engage your children and help them learn!

2013 sees the launch of 3 new products from our Preschool range that should bring lots of  learning fun to your nursery or classroom.

Creative Builder
Help your children create characters and scenes and learn counting using this fantastic new set. The children select a colourful card and put it in its sturdy stand and then start to build the character, scene or maths puzzle against the scale model on the card using the colourful bricks. This helps to develop a variety of skills including coordination, colour and piece recognition, following instructions and counting as well as being lots of fun! The cards are double-sided and with two stands this means four children can use it at the same time!
Find out more about the Creative Builder set here.

Creative Cards
Eight more colourful double-sided building cards with lots more creative ideas to ensure that you get even more out of your Creative Builder set. Or, if you have our XL LEGO® DUPLO® brick set you will also have the pieces to create all of these ideas.
Find out more about the Creative Cards here.

Playground
Children love playgrounds and now they can create their own! This set encourages creative development as they design their very own games and rides and then have fun role-playing and telling stories about what the colourful characters get up to. It is ideal for free play but also supports the development of expressive arts, understanding of the world and numeracy as well as communication and language development.
Find out more about the Playground set here.

Building Beijing – with LEGO® DUPLO®

Creative children as young as four have been using LEGO® DUPLO® to design the future of the Chinese capital Beijing.

Youngsters aged between four and six worked together in groups in the competition organised by LEGO® Education and People’s Architecture as part of Beijing Design Week. They used LEGO DUPLO to build a working model that could move through the streets of the city to make Beijing more comfortable for residents.

The brilliant results of their efforts can be seen here.

Organisers said: “We want to encourage children to think on a multi-level platform by explaining how this object can change the city physically and how this would make our everyday life more comfortable”.

Fifteen Beijing design firms were then asked to build mini LEGO cities using the children’s work as a starting point, and the mini cities were then joined together to create a mega-metropolis made of LEGO.

Why not challenge the children in your class to work collaboratively to build a city of the future using LEGO? You could use the idea as a starting point to discuss what issues will face communities in the future. Let us know how you get on.

For more on Beijing Design Week, visit the website.

Have you had Instant Success with LEGO® DUPLO® in your nursery?

Most children love to play with LEGO® DUPLO® products – they’re ideal for small hands, hard wearing and safe plus they bring lots of fun to play.

At LEGO® Education we’re keen to help you get the most out of your resources and to help you to use them not only for just free play but also to deliver key areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

To inspire you we have designed a free booklet for you to download that provides a whole range of ideas that you can use to deliver the key areas.

It covers the key areas of:

• Communication, Language & Literacy
• Problem-solving, Reasoning & Numeracy
• Knowledge & Understanding of the World
• Creative Development
• Personal, Social & Emotional Development
• Physical Development

So why not download the brochure now and start getting even more out or your LEGO DUPLO resources? We’re sure you will have as much fun using them as the children!

More ideas?

We would love to put together our next booklet with ideas from you – so if you have any ideas to share then please email them to marketing@LEGOeducation.eu . We will put the best ones on the blog and for the person with the top idea each month we will give them £50 worth of LEGO® Education vouchers. We’ll then collate all the best ideas and put them together in a booklet to share. We look forward to hearing from you!

Play to Learn – FREE Activity Cards (Personal, Social and Emotional Development)

The final FREE Play to Learn card in this series is on Personal, Social & Emotional Development – download the activity card here.

This card provides lots ideas for using LEGO® DUPLO® bricks for developing positive sense of self, respect for others, teamwork and exploring culture and community. The LEGO DUPLO mini figures are ideal for this subject area as they are great to use not only as a visual stimulus to generate conversation but also perfect for the children to use express their own ideas through stories and role play.

More ideas?

Remember if you have any ideas for activities in this area or any other, and you are happy to share them, email them to us at marketing@LEGOeducation.eu. We’ll publish the top ideas on the blog with £50 worth of LEGO Education vouchers for the best idea in the month.

Look out for our Instant Success brochure providing more suggestions on how you can get more out of your LEGO DUPLO products.

Previous activity cards: Problem-Solving, Reasoning & Numeracy | Communication, Language & Literacy | Knowledge & Understanding of the World | Creative Development

Play to Learn – FREE Activity Cards (Creative Development)

This week’s FREE Play to Learn card is on Creative Development – download the activity card here.

This card provides lots ideas for using LEGO® DUPLO® bricks for imaginative role play, exploring art and design, communicating ideas and working with colour and shapes. Being creative is always fun for children and these activities will hopefully these ideas will stem more ideas of your own of how you can use your LEGO resources in this area.

More ideas?

Do you have other ideas how you can use our products to teach this area? If so, and you are happy to share them, email them to us at marketing@LEGOeducation.eu. We’ll publish the top ideas on the blog with £50 worth of LEGO Education vouchers for the best idea in the month.

Next week, look out for our final card on Personal, Social & Emotional Development.

Previous activity cards: Problem-Solving, Reasoning & Numeracy | Communication, Language & Literacy | Knowledge & Understanding of the World

Play to Learn – FREE Activity Cards (Knowledge & Understanding of the World)

This week’s FREE Play to Learn card is on Knowledge & Understanding of the World – download the activity card here.

This card provides lots ideas for using LEGO® DUPLO® bricks for problem-solving and critical thinking, prediction and observation, exploring communities and cultures and early science and technology concepts. These ideas are perfect for working with your children in small groups and helping them to learn whilst having fun learning about the wider world they live in.

More ideas?

Do you have other ideas how you can use our products to teach this area? If so, and you are happy to share them, email them to us at marketing@LEGOeducation.eu. We’ll publish the top ideas on the blog with £50 worth of LEGO Education vouchers for the best idea in the month.

Next week, look out for our card on Creative Development.

Previous activity cards: Problem-Solving, Reasoning & Numeracy | Communication, Language & Literacy