With “The Art of the Brick” – the world’s most popular LEGO® exhibit – coming to South Africa soon, there has been renewed enthusiasm around these classic building blocks. It’s educational value in terms of developing creativity and a sense of spatial orientation is unquestionable. However, I did some research on how LEGO® is being used by teachers and parents for Mathematics and was amazed at some of the innovative ideas being implemented.
1. Pre-primary (3 – 6 years old): can be used to explore colours, counting and sharing.
2. Foundation Phase (7 – 9 years old): useful for visual representation of addition, subtraction, decomposition of numbers, doubling, multiplication, sharing, patterns and symmetry.
3. Intermediate Phase (10 – 13 years old): enhance understanding of concepts such as squaring of numbers, fractions, mean, median, mode and range.
For a detailed list of specific activities, visit the following site.
http://livingmontessorinow.com/2013/06/20/free-lego-printables-and-70-plus-lego-learning-activities/
There is bound to be an activity here that appeals to you and your child.
I am sure your children will start creating again after visiting the exhibition. Use this opportunity to explore some Maths concepts with them as well. Tip for parents: Keep it informal - don’t make it seem like a Math lesson!
Neshni Naidoo