With only a few weeks to go until the end of another school year, our main goal is to keep the students interested and engaged – so we did LEGO maths all week!
Even though we teach Grade 3/4, whenever it is wet day timetable the first thing to come out is the Lego. My teaching partner and I planned a series of lesson that would incorporate Lego, technology, maths skills and a bit of technical thinking.
Lesson 1 – Legoland
We introduced the design brief that Legoland was looking at building a new attraction and wanted us to design on. We showed them a map of Legoland on the IWB and discussed the types of attractions they already have. Students were excited by the chance to design their own and discussed their ideas in small groups. They then did a little sketch in their maths workbooks showing approximate dimensions of the attraction and their ideas.
Lesson 2 & 3 – Legoland
Students then either used BlockCAD (free download from the internet) or Lego pieces to create their designs. Many children altered their design as they worked, changing their original design as creativity came to them!
Lesson 4 & 5 – Legoland
After they designed their attraction, students worked out the surface area, perimeter and volume of the attraction as the builders of Legoland needed to know how much space it would take up. Then children made a poster with a photo and their information (sorry, I forgot to take a photo).
Lesson 6 – Measurement
We used Lego to practise our measuring skills. We found something in the room and guessed how many Lego blocks would weigh the same as the object (always estimate first). Then we used balance scales to count the exact number of blocks.
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