There are so many toys and simple items around the house that you can repurpose into learning materials. Lego is an ideal one for us, since my kids are always keen to play with this toy. This week, we’re joining in with the #toolsforlearning series where a group of parent and educator bloggers will be sharing their ideas for learning with Lego.
I used our Lego blocks to make a simple busy bag for learning the days of the week. I included the days of the week in English, but also took the opportunity to include the French days of the week since Z is learning French in school these days, and the Arabic days of the week. Z suggested I should add the Spanish days of the week too, so I may go back and add those later.
For younger kids, you could just focus on one language of days of the week, and focus on ordering them rather than matching up language to language. You could easily make the same thing with Lego Duplo bricks that would be easier for their small toddler hands to handle.
Supplies
To make this activity we used:
- 14 Lego bricks ( 2 sets of 7, both the same colour)
- Paper and pen
- Double sided tape
- Lego Minifigures (optional extra)
- 1 Busy bag to store (we were sent ours from Momo Kids and they are great)
To add the week days, I wrote them on small strips of paper and attached with double sided tape. I’ve also seen people use sharpie pens and write directly onto the Lego bricks.
If kids are writing the words themselves to make these, they’ll need to write pretty small – or use Duplo bricks to get around this. My kids hand writing is still pretty large and they would need the Duplo to fit their handwriting on, but they are keen on the smaller bricks and it makes the activity more compact and easy to store so that’s why I wrote the words myself for this.
Using double sided tape sticks paper to the Lego bricks very firmly, and you can rip it off in the future after you’re done with the activity. You will need to give the Lego bricks a good wash to get rid of any left over “stickiness”
If you’re making up sets for two or more languages, make sure to colour code the two languages if you want to make it easier for kids to relate each one to the other.
We made ours double sided, so the Arabic is on the other side of the French Lego bricks (and the Spanish will probably go on the back of the English when we get to that).
If you’re working on ordering with just one language, you could put numbers on the other side of the bricks to help with that.
Once they’re all made, you can jumble them up and let your child work out how to order each set back together, or how to match them up in pairs with the other language
Z matched them all up and then lined them up in order (although after taking the photo, I noticed that French and Arabic are switched on the Saturday!)
He enjoyed this simple activity, and I will be sure to bring Lego into other new topics to help them grab his attention.
More Lego Learning Activities
- LEGO Addition Mat for Greater Than/Less Than from Life Over C’s
- Duplo Lego Geoboard from Still Playing School
- Duplo Consonant Blends Activity from Learning 2 Walk
- Educational Playtime with Duplo – Sorting, Estimating and Building from Crafty Mama in ME
- LEGO DUPLO Sight Word Towers from Mom Inspired Life
- Build A Lego Catapult from Powerful Mothering
- Geometric Blueprints with LEGO from Handmade Kids Art
- Slippery Lego Duplo Fine Motor Practice from Best Toys 4 Toddlers
- Penguin Ice Cube Counting With LEGO from Preschool Powol Packets
- Word Building with LEGOS from Sugar Aunts
- Hands-on Science: Creating a Water Cycle Project using LEGO from Edventures with Kids
- Lego Tower Subtraction Race from The Kindergarten Connection
- Lego: 5 reasons you should use it with your kids from The Usual Mayhem
- Lego Heart Marble Maze from Lemon Lime Adventures
- Dumping Lego Colour Match Activity from Teach me Mommy
- Feed the Duplo Alien from Adventures of Adam
- How To Create A Duplo Block Painting from Raising Little Superheroes
- Letter Sequencing with Lego Duplo from School Time Snippets
- Lego ordering, days of the week from In The Playroom
- Dental Flossing with Duplo from Study at Home Mama
- LEGO Math Ten Frame Games from Lalymom
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
Great idea to colour code the different languages. I love that you have included so many. Now off to look at those busy bags from Momo Kids too.
What a great way to help kids learn different languages!
This is such a great idea! We’ve been mostly doing songs to remember the days of the week, but I love the idea to bring a hands-on component for learning.
That sounds very fun. You can easily master the days of the week by doing that. It reminds me some times back when we had a calendar that was written in German, and by the end of the year, everyone in the house knew the days of the week and how to pronounce the months well. What I like about something like this is, you have to mention or get to see it everyday, so you cant easily forget. Thanks for sharing
Cindy