Lego blocks

Illustrated discussion board

(Open picture game-Lego blocks) Print several pictures linked to your theme and glue them on a large piece of colorful cardboard. Laminate it. During circle time, use your illustrated board to present various items associated with your theme. Give each child a dry-erase marker. During your discussion period, children can circle the items they are able to identify. This will help younger children visualize what you are talking about.

A treasure hunt to discover the theme

(Open educa-decorate-Lego blocks) Print and laminate. Set the items throughout your daycare. Ask children to find them and bring them to you. Together, name the items associated with your theme. Encourage your group to guess the theme.

AREA SETUP

Thematic poster-Lego blocks

(Open thematic poster-Lego blocks) Print, laminate, and display where children are sure to see it.

Educa-theme-Lego blocks

(Open educa-theme-Lego blocks) Print and laminate the different elements representing the theme. Use them to present the theme to your group (and children’s parents) while decorating your daycare.

Educa-decorate-Lego blocks

(Open educa-decorate-Lego blocks) Print, laminate, and cut out the illustrations. Use them to decorate your walls and set the mood for the theme.

Hanging Lego blocks

Use invisible thread to hang Lego blocks from the ceiling to add a touch of color to your décor.

Building houses

Hang a clothesline within your daycare, approximately 2 meters from the floor. Hang a bedsheet or blanket on it to form a tent. If you prefer, drape the fabric over a table. Use clothespins to display children’s artwork on their tent. Drape blankets over various items to represent houses.

Giant colorful blocks

With the children in your group, paint several cardboard boxes (different sizes) using bold paint colors. Let dry. Press rows of Fun Foam circles on one side of each box to make them look like Lego blocks. Set the blocks throughout your daycare to add a touch of color. Hang some from the ceiling. If you wish, use your homemade blocks to delimit various areas and workshops within your daycare. You could also choose to use blocks of a different color to decorate each area (blue blocks in your reading corner, yellow blocks in your kitchen area, etc.).

PICTURE GAME

(Open picture game-Lego blocks) Use the pictures to decorate your daycare or to spark a conversation with your group. Print, laminate, and store the pictures in a Ziploc bag or in your thematic bin.

Memory game-Lego blocks

(Open picture game-Lego blocks) Print the illustrations twice and use them for a memory game.

ACTIVITY SHEETS

(Open activity sheets-Lego blocks) Print and follow instructions.

WRITING ACTIVITIES

(Open writing activities-B like block) Print for each child or laminate for use with a dry-erase marker.

Educa-nuudles-Lego blocks

(Open educa-nuudles-Lego blocks) Print for each child. Have children color the sheet. Once they are done, they may use Magic Nuudles to turn the coloring pages into three-dimensional works of art.

Variation: If you do not have Magic Nuudles, ask children to fill the spaces designed for Magic Nuudles with bingo markers or stickers.

To order Magic Nuudles:

http://www.educatout.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=76&osCsid=dd5f6e4b9a9a91cbd4f9a233494afbff

Stationery-Lego blocks

(Open stationery-Lego blocks) Print. The stationery can be used to communicate with parents, in your writing area, or to identify your thematic bins.

LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES

Word flashcards

Use the flashcards to spark a conversation with your group, in your reading and writing corner, or to identify your thematic bins. (Open word flashcards-Lego blocks) (Open giant word flashcards-Lego blocks) Print. building blocks, Lego, model, to stack, to sort, to assemble, colors, base plate, brick, imaginary, construction, table

If I was a Lego block…

Insert several Lego blocks (different colors and sizes) in an opaque bag. Children take turns picking a block out of the bag. If, for example, a child picks a yellow block, he could say, “If I was a yellow block, I could be used to build a sun.” If a child picks a red block, he could say, “If I was a red block, I could be used to build a race car.” Don’t hesitate to ask children questions linked to their suggested transformations to encourage them to speak even more. For example, you could ask the child who said that he would be used to build a race car which number would be printed on the race car’s doors.

Associating words and illustrations

(Open giant word flashcards-Lego blocks) Print, laminate, and display the word flashcards on a wall in your circle time area or on a large piece of cardboard that can easily be moved around. Read a word and invite a child to identify the corresponding flashcard.

Sorting-Lego blocks

Use Lego blocks for sorting games. Set all the illustrations from the educa-decorate document in the center of a table. Ask children to pick an item, name it, and associate it with a pre-determined category (size, color, shape, etc.).

ROUTINES & TRANSITIONS

Game-This is my spot-Lego blocks

(Open game-This is my spot-Lego blocks) Print two copies. Laminate and cut out the cards. Glue one copy of each card on the table using adhesive paper. Drop the other copies in a bag. Children take turns picking a card to determine their spot at the table for the day. You may also use the cards to determine naptime spots or for your task train.

Tiny creative buckets

You will need several tiny sand buckets (different colors). Fill each one with a variety of Lego blocks. During naptime, set a bucket next to each child’s naptime spot. When they wake up, they can use the blocks that are in their bucket to build something quietly on their mat as they wait for their peers to wake up and naptime to be over. Be sure to give those who wake up at the very end of naptime a few minutes to play with their blocks too.

Lego block soaps

To capture children’s attention, you could add colorful Lego blocks to a clear bottle containing clear liquid hand soap.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND MOTOR SKILLS

Use cardboard boxes that you have wrapped with plain bold-colored wrapping paper to build an obstacle course. (Open signs-Lego blocks) Print and laminate the signs and set them throughout your obstacle course. Have children execute the actions as they reach them.

Building block wall

Divide your group into teams. You will need 10 cardboard bricks per team. When you give the signal, teams race to build a wall that is 10 bricks high.

Building block tower

Using building blocks, children practice building towers. Note the evolution of their structures.

Base plates, tubes, and balls

Press Lego blocks on base plates to create a large maze. Add various types of tubes (dryer hose, paper towel roll, etc.) and have fun rolling ping pong balls or large marbles through the maze.

My Lego house

Build a house using boxes that you have previously wrapped in colorful paper. On each box, glue rows of paper plates that are the same color as the paper to represent giant Lego blocks. Set plastic containers, empty cardboard boxes, etc. throughout your daycare. Let children use the boxes to decorate the house or create divisions.

Jump for blocks

(Open models-Lego blocks) Print. Laminate the items and use adhesive paper to press them on the floor. Play music. Every time the music stops, children must jump on a block.

Fine motor skills-Crumpled tissue paper Lego blocks

(Open models-Lego blocks) Print for each child. Have children tear colorful tissue paper into pieces they can crumple it to form tiny balls. Have them fill the shapes with the tissue paper balls.

Modeling dough activity placemats-Lego blocks

(Open modeling dough activity placemats-Lego blocks) Print and laminate. Let children pick a placemat and provide modeling dough. Encourage them to use the dough to fill or reproduce the shapes that are on their placemat.

Roll and color-Lego blocks

(Open roll and color-Lego blocks) Print for each child. This game can be enjoyed individually or as a group. Children take turns rolling the die, counting the dots, and coloring the corresponding part on their sheet.

String activities-Lego blocks

(Open string activities-Lego blocks) Print for each child. Children trace the lines with waxed string pieces (Wikki Stix). Variation: Trace the lines with glue and press string on the glue-covered lines.

Lego block pink flamingoes

(Open pink flamingoes-Lego blocks) Print for each child. Set a large bin filled with Lego blocks on the table. Children must find pink blocks and set them on their sheet to represent a pink flamingo. If you don’t have enough pink blocks, divide your group into teams of 2 or 3 children.

Lego block apples

(Open apples-Lego blocks) Print and laminate the models. Children use Lego blocks to reproduce the printed shapes.

Lego block hunt

(Open miniature Lego blocks) Print and laminate. Hide the blocks throughout your daycare and invite children to search for them. The child who finds the most blocks can hide them for the next round.

Lego block animals

(Open animals-Lego blocks) Print for each child. Set a large bin filled with Lego blocks on a table. Children must find the Lego blocks required to reproduce the animal on their card. If you don’t have enough blocks, divide your group into teams of 2 or 3 children.

Dominoes-Lego blocks

Have fun setting Lego blocks upright in a row, leaving just a little space between them as you would do with dominoes. Getting them to stand up can represent quite the challenge. When you are ready, tap the first block in line to create a chain reaction. Will you succeed in making them fall like real dominoes? Children will have great fun creating a variety of paths to verify if the end result is always the same or if it varies.

Lego block spoon race

Fill 2 identical bins with Lego blocks. This game is for 2 children. Give each child a spoon. When you give the signal, children must empty their bin by removing the blocks using only the spoon you have provided. The first child who succeeds can race with another child for the following round. If you wish, you can challenge children and provide a variety of tools such as kitchen tongs or chopsticks.

Miniature ring game-Lego blocks

With the children in your group, stack a few series of blocks on a base plate to create 4 or 5 towers, leaving a small space between them. Give each child a different color of elastic hair ties. Children must try to toss them over the towers.

Blind Lego block constructions

Give each child a small bin containing a large number of Lego blocks. Blindfold children and set a timer for 3 minutes. When you give the signal, children try to build a tower. When the timer goes off, children remove their blindfold. Who will have stacked the most blocks?

COGNITIVE ACTIVITIES

Educa-symmetry-Lego blocks

(Open educa-symmetry-Lego blocks) Print. Children must color the picture on the right (black and white), reproducing the picture on the left (in color).

Lego block house

(Open house-Lego blocks) Print, laminate, and cut each piece out. Children sit on the floor and assemble the pieces to build a house.

Bingo
(Open bingo-Lego blocks) Print, laminate, and store the game in a small box or "Ziploc" bag. Play bingo with your group. Use Lego blocks as markers.

Hot Lego block

Sit in a circle. Sing a song (or invite a child to sing). Children pass a Lego block around the circle. When the song ends, the child holding the block must execute an action (stand on one foot, perform a somersault, hop 3 times, etc.).

I am learning to count-Lego blocks

(Open I am learning to count-Lego blocks) Print, laminate, and hang the cards at children’s level. Collect 20 identical blocks and write a number from 1 to 20 on one side of each block. Invite children to use them to build a tower, stacking the blocks in numerical order. Next, children can use their tower to measure various objects in your daycare.

Alphabet building blocks

(Open alphabet-Lego blocks) Print, laminate, and cut out the cards. Children can use them to build letters of the alphabet with blocks. Invite them to pick a card, name a letter, and represent it using blocks of the corresponding color. With older children, you can encourage them to find the cards illustrating the letters needed to write various words and invite them to work together to build them and arrange them in the correct order. Word flashcards can be used as models.

Block math

(Open math-Lego blocks) Print, laminate, and cut out the cards. Children pick a card and stack blocks to represent each number to the left of the equal sign. Next, they stack both sets and count the blocks to confirm the sum indicated on the card. For equations involving subtraction, children remove blocks from the first set to verify the difference.

Block sorting

Use colorful adhesive tape to draw a route complete with corners and zigzags on the floor. The route could go all the way around your daycare. At the start of the route, set several red, blue, yellow, and green blocks. Along the route, set pieces of paper of the corresponding colors. Give each child a small dump truck that they can fill with blocks. Next, have them roll their truck along the route to “deliver” blocks to the correct places by associating them to the color of the paper. For example, they will set a red block on each piece of red paper.

Filling base plates

Give each child a Lego base plate (they must all be the same size). Set a bin filled with Lego blocks in the center of the table. Children take turns rolling a pair of dice and counting the total number of dots. If, for example, a child rolls a 3 and a 5, he can add blocks having a total of 8 dots to his base plate. He may choose to add two 4-dot pieces, a 6-dot piece and a 2-dot piece, a 3-dot piece and a 5-dot piece, or a single 8-dot piece. The goal is to be the first child to completely fill his base plate. Note that you may choose to use a single die if the children in your group are very young or even divide your group into pairs.

Colorful puzzles

Before children arrive in the morning, set several Lego blocks in rows or columns on different colors of construction paper (without connecting them). Trace the contour of the shapes and laminate the sheets. Children must set blocks inside the shape outlines, using blocks that correspond to the color of the paper (ex. blue blocks to fill a shape drawn on blue paper).

Board game-Lego blocks

(Open board game-Lego blocks) Print and laminate the board game. Each child chooses a Lego figurine that will become his playing piece. Children take turns rolling a die and moving forward a certain number of squares, per the number indicated on the die. If they land on a + or -, they add or remove blocks under their figurine. The game continues until all the playing pieces have reached the end of the board game. Measure the figurines. The child whose figurine has the most blocks under it at the end of the game wins.

MORAL AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES

Friendship bracelets

For each child, you will need a flat rectangular Lego block. Let children choose the color they want to use. Use a drill to make 2 tiny holes in each block, one at each end. Next, invite children to pick 3 colors of embroidery thread. Cut the pieces so they are long enough to create a bracelet. Measure each child’s wrist. Children thread the embroidery threads in the hole on the left and pull on them to pull them out of the hole on the right. Braid the embroidery thread and knot the extremities. Attach each child’s bracelet on his wrist. Use these jewellery items to help your group understand how, just like the blocks they use to build various constructions, they are all connected.

Here I am as a Lego figurine

(Open model-Lego figurine) Print the Lego figurine silhouette for each child. Encourage them to represent themselves as a Lego figurine. They can draw their clothing items, facial features, hair, etc. Children could, for example, draw themselves as a superhero, a ballerina, an astronaut, etc. There are no limits! Invite each child to present his drawing to the group.

Let’s build together

Unroll a long white paper banner on the floor. With your group, draw a long river in the center of the banner. Divide your group into 2 teams. Each team shall be on one side of the river. Their mission is to work together to build a bridge over the river. You can challenge older children to build a bridge that is high enough for a toy boat to pass under it. This activity fosters teamwork. Once they have succeeded, let them play with boats and figurines.

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES

Towers against the fence

Use adhesive tape or sidewalk chalk to indicate various heights on your fence. Encourage children to stack blocks, creating towers that correspond to the different measurements.

Block race

Provide Lego blocks and encourage children to race to build various structures, just for fun.

Blanket constructions

Collect several blankets and use them to build cabins throughout your yard. Let children play in these cabins with Lego blocks.

CULINARY ACTIVITIES

My cookie house

Roll out sugar cookie dough and use cookie cutters to cut squares and triangles that children can use to build houses. Once the houses have been baked, let them decorate them with icing and candy pieces. They can even build three-dimensional cookie houses.

Healthy blocks

At snack time, serve rectangular crackers to represent blocks. Cut slices of cheese to give them a rectangular shape and so that they are the same size as the crackers. Cut tiny circles out of additional cheese slices and set them on the crackers or larger cheese slices to make them look like Lego blocks.

Colorful containers to decorate your table

With the children in your group, use Lego blocks to build different containers that can be set on the table. You could, among other things, create a container for utensils, another one for napkins, and a third one for facecloths.

Rice Krispies Lego blocks

Prepare Rice Krispie squares. Cut them into small pieces that look like Lego blocks. Spread colorful icing on them and let children press Smarties on the icing to make them look like blocks.

ARTS & CRAFTS

My Lego block hat

(Open educa-decorate-Lego blocks) Print and cut out the items. Glue them around a paper headband.

Finger puppets-Lego blocks

(Open finger puppets-Lego blocks) Print the various models on heavy paper. Have children cut them out. Show them how they can insert their fingers in the holes to bring the puppets to life.

Crafts-Lego blocks

(Open models-Lego blocks) Print and let children decorate the blocks. Cut them out and hang them in your daycare or in your daycare entrance.

Stamps-Lego blocks

Provide Lego blocks along with poster paint or stamp pads. Children will have fun making impressions on colorful paper.

Modeling dough and Lego blocks

Provide modeling dough. Let children sculpt original creations and use blocks to make impressions in the dough.

Giant Lego blocks

Ask parents to help you collect several empty cardboard boxes (cereal, pasta, milk cartons, etc.). Use the boxes to create giant bricks with your group. First, fill the boxes with newspaper and seal them with heavy tape. Wrap each box with Kraft paper and let children draw circles on the top of each box to make them look like Lego blocks.

Our group project-Lego block house

Here, you will need a large cardboard box (appliance). Have children transform the box, decorating it with Lego blocks.

Inventing figurines

(Open inventing figurines) Print and cut out several Lego-figurine silhouettes. Provide wiggly eyes, small Fun Foam shapes, felt, stickers, etc. Children use the material to create original Lego figurines. They could, for example, cut clothing items or accessories out of felt, draw facial features, glue different symbols, etc.

My Lego figurine face

(Open My Lego figurine face) Print the eyebrows, eyes, and mouth for each child. Invite them to cut them out. Have them paint a paper plate using yellow poster paint. Let dry. Once the paint is dry, they glue the pieces on their plate, in the center. Next, draw a vertical line on either side of each child’s plate. Children cut along these lines. Have them cut two squares out of yellow Fun Foam. They glue one square at the top of their plate and one at the bottom, behind the plate and so that about half of each square is visible on the front. Hang these Lego figurine faces from the ceiling in your daycare.

Lego block stamping

Show children how they can press blocks in poster paint and then on paper to represent a robot, a castle, a rocket, a house, insects, etc. Let dry and display their artwork on a bulletin board. If you prefer, have them paint shapes using this method on a long paper banner and hang it in a hallway.

I observe and I draw

In the center of the table, set blocks or a structure that was built using Lego blocks. Ask children to observe it. Provide paper and crayons and ask them to draw what they see.

COLORING PAGES

(Open coloring pages theme-Lego blocks) Print for each child.

Identical coloring pages-Lego blocks

Print the same coloring page for each child and an additional copy for your model. Color only certain parts of your picture. Present the model to your group and ask them to color their picture to make it look exactly like yours.

Coloring binder-Lego blocks

Print and laminate several coloring pages and arrange them in a binder with a few dry-erase markers. Leave everything on a table for children to explore.

Musical drawing-Lego blocks

Play musical drawing with your group. Give each child a coloring page. Have children sit around a table. When the music starts, they must pass the coloring pages around the table. Every time the music stops, they must color the picture in front of them until the music starts again.

Homemade puzzles-Lego blocks

Give each child a picture to color. When they are done, cut each picture into pieces to create unique puzzles.

Have fun!

The educatall team