Anytime that I can combine school and science with Legos, I jump at the chance! This week as we discuss the scientific method, I wanted the kids to practice sorting things by physical characteristics. I thought for a minute about getting a bunch of balls or maybe some shapes. When I mentioned what I was doing to Chase, he enthusiastically replied, "Why not use Legos?!"
Now that's why he's my Go-to-Guy!
We pulled out a stack of Legos (I only used about 1/8 of our stash. Otherwise we'd be there all day!) Together we talked about the physical characteristics of each.
We discussed ways some of the bricks are *the same, *different, or *not exactly the same.
We pulled out other accessories that didn't fall into the same categories as the bricks and discussed how they were alike, similar and different from regular bricks.
Once they were comfortable with the terminology, I set them lose to collect their groups or "sets" of Legos. They're rules were simply to find Legos that belonged together in a certain group or set. As they put them in piles, I listened to their scientific language and wrote some of them down in their science notebooks. After they were all done sorting, I had them each tell me about their sets and what they chose and why.
Kurt's sets were:
*pieces with holes, *flat pieces, *pieces with one external hole,
*bricks with 2 dots, *square bricks with 4 dots, and *long bricks with 4 dots.
Vance's sets:
*pieces with 4 holes, *pieces with 1 hole, *pieces with wheels
*bricks with 2 dots, *bodies, *heads, and *pieces that can bend
Ava's sets:
*odd pieces, *plants, *white, *windshields, *animals
After we worked on the sets, I let them build with their pieces for a while and we ended the time writing in our handwriting books (I love Handwriting Without Tears!)
That way they're happy, and mom is happy!
I'd call that an A+ day!
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