Building and creating with LEGOS is so much fun! Whether you are following the instructions or building something unique, working with Legos is a great way to strengthen spatial awareness and engineering skills. But, LEGOS are not just fun and games, they make an excellent tool for the classroom, and you can use them to help teach math concepts and reading skills. What kid wouldn’t want to participate in a lesson full of LEGOS?
Teach Math Concepts with LEGOS
Here are over 10 different websites that have some awesome lego math concept games, activities, and more!
LEGO Place Value
This free LEGO place value activity from STEM Powered Family allows your child to practice place value while playing with one of their favorite toys! They even give you two ways to use the LEGO blocks and LEGO place value activity together! This knowledge will help your child with basic operations when it comes time.
LEGO Bar Graphs
Making a LEGO bar graph is a great way to teach kids how to sort, collect data, and create a bar graph. Science Sparks has your children learning how to do all three using objects, candy, or other fun things found around the house. Watch as your children build 3D bar graphs to show their knowledge.
LEGO Addition and Subtraction
Here are a couple of LEGO activities based on addition and subtraction.
Number Line #1
Number lines are a great way to help children with addition and subtraction. Allowing your children to use number lines lets them see how many numbers they need to add or subtract to get to their answer. Using a sliding LEGO makes it fun! Use card stock and laminate the number to make it more durable. Source: Royal Baloo
Number Line #2
This number line allows your kid to take a lego figure and make the jumps on the number line. Using lego addition cards and/or subtraction flashcards, your child can move the figure to determine the answer to the math problem. Source: Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls
Subtraction Game
Every kid loves a game, and this subtraction LEGO game is super fun and easy for kids to learn. All you need is a bunch of LEGO bricks and dice; the rest is fun and games! Source: Kindergarten Connection
LEGO Fractions
Basic Fractions #1
Fractions are a problematic concept and children often struggle seeing how they are created even with all the cake and pizza examples we give them. Using lego blocks is an interactive and engaging way to help your child build different fractions. Using different colors allows children to see the difference between the numerator and denominator or the part and the whole. Source: JDaniel4’s Mom
Fractions #2
Suppose you want to help your older child look at different fractions and how they create one whole. This activity by Bambinis is the perfect way to help them! Children can use different colored lego blocks to make one whole and see how different fractions can create one whole in their own way.
Fractions #3
A great way to show children how fractions are made of parts and a whole is to use lego blocks to show parts of the whole—using different-sized lego blocks to show ¼, ½, ⅛, etc. You can easily show how different fraction pieces combine to make one whole. Source: Bored Panda
LEGO Multiplication and Division
A couple of activities to help teach multiplication and division with LEGOS.
Multiplication and Division
Multiplication and division are challenging, especially when your child is first learning the math concepts. There are multiple ways to teach multiplication and division, and Math Geek Mama explains how to use LEGOS to teach multiplying and dividing easily!
Multiplying and Dividing Fractions
Although this is a paid resource Brick Math has created many different resources and ways to use LEGOS to teach math concepts. They have a whole workbook for fraction multiplication and fraction division to help you teach these concepts using LEGO bricks.
Square Numbers
Square numbers often seem scary and very challenging when children are first introduced to them, but using LEGO blocks to show how square numbers are just a “repeated” multiplication sentence may make it a lot easier. Source: Math Blaster
Other LEGO Math Concepts
Here are a couple more math concepts you can teach using LEGO blocks.
LEGO Clock
Learning to read a clock is one of the most challenging concepts for young children! We live in a digital world, and most of us just check out the smartwatch or phone for the time. Some of us may say, “Alexa, what time is it?” Having your child build a LEGO clock where the hour and minute hand can actually move while practicing telling time is a great option! Source: Stir the Wonder
Pythagorean Theorem
Math Geek Mama does it again. She has come up with a way to take a very obscure math measurement concept like the Pythagorean theorem and use LEGO blocks to help teach it! She gives a step-by-step breakdown and tells you exactly how to teach it!
Counting and Basic Measurement
Using number LEGO bricks, your child can learn basic counting and measurement skills. Have them keep connecting bricks until they are at the correct length of the object. They can measure how long the table is, their bed, or the family dog. Source: The Imagination Tree
Area and Perimeter
All kids love a game, and this game helps children learn area and perimeter, which is a little bit more of an advanced measurement than our counting and measuring activities mentioned before—comparing areas and perimeters and making their own rectangles. This activity is a fun way to practice or learn these more complex skills. Source: iGameMom
From fractions to basic counting, LEGO bricks are perfect for a math center, math lessons, or just a fun way to practice, review or learn new math skills.
Lego Literacy Activities
You can use LEGOS to help children learn reading skills as well! There are a bunch of different lessons and activities to help students’ reading, and they are a lot of fun!
Beginning Readers
Here are some LEGO activities you can try with your beginner reader!
Letter Matching
Matching uppercase and lowercase letters and letter recognition are the first steps in reading. You can easily use LEGOs to help your toddler learn what letters go together and which do not. Use two blocks and write the uppercase letter on one and the lowercase letter on the other. Do this with the whole alphabet and give them all to your toddler to match. Source: Busy Toddler
Child’s Name
Your child’s name is always one of the first things they are expected to recognize, spell, and write. Use LEGOs blocks or LEGO Duplo blocks to help them create a 3D name! Source: Playdough to Plato
CVC Words
CVC words are the next part of learning to read. You can write the letters on LEGO and use the Cricut for each letter. Then use CVC word flashcards or say the letters to your child. This is a great way to get your child excited about reading and spelling. Source: Picklebums
Sight Words
Sight words are words your child needs to know when they see them. They often do not follow spelling rules and are throughout books like crazy! You can have your child build each sight word using LEGO blocks. Source: Creative Family Fun
Intermediate Readers
So your child can read but may still need some work with spelling words and reading longer and more difficult words. Here are some different ways to use LEGOS with them!
Spelling Words
The Reading Mama has a system to help you separate your LEGO blocks into vowels, short consonants, and letters with tails or tall letters. For example, the green bricks are the vowels, the red ones are the short consonants, etc. This will help your child visually see the different parts of the words.
Word Families
Now that your child can read simple books, they will come into contact with many different word families. Using LEGOs to create different word family sorts is a simple and quick way to help your child look at other words and see the families they fit into! Source: Parenting Chaos
Secret Codes
STEM is a huge part of school curriculums and this activity is a perfect way to incorporate STEM/STEAM into your classroom. Using letter-assigned LEGO bricks, your child (or you) can create a secret code or message. Your child or someone in the household needs to match the brick with the letter and figure out the message! Source: Mommy Fables
Advanced Readers
Don’t worry, we didn’t forget our older children who already can read! There are tons of LEGO reading activities for them!
Lego Sentence Structure
A hilarious game using LEGOS and sentences! All you need are LEGO blocks and a sharpie. You will write action words, pronouns, nouns (proper and common), and other parts of a sentence onto the blocks, and you’ll be ready to start. The After School Life explains all of the specifics really well.
Compound Words
We all know compound words are super fun to learn, and you can easily use LEGO blocks to help children make new words like card+board=cardboard or water+ melon=watermelon. Use two LEGO blocks and write or tape the two smaller words to them, then use a large block and write the compound word. Kids can then connect the two smaller LEGO blocks on top of the bigger one to see how they combine. Source: The Brown Bag Teacher
Contractions
Along the same lines as the compound word activity above, you can use the same concept to help teach your child contractions. Source: Techie Teacher
LEGOs as Educational Tools
We might have thought LEGOs were just child’s play, but they are so helpful in the classroom and for so many learning purposes! Let your imagination run wild the next time you step on one of those little buggers and create a fun educational activity for your child! There are many great ideas above, but you can probably think of many more!