You know those moments when you find an educational activity that your kids love and are willing to spend an hour ‘playing’? This was one of those activities for us. We’ve had so much fun with our building block challenge cards and our pattern block challenge cards that we decided that we needed to create some LEGO STEM challenge cards to add to our collection. My 12 & 11 year olds both spent an hour creating for the challenge cards that they selected. And then they helped me create some new challenge cards. So the last 8 cards in this set are 100% tween-approved. Be sure to check out all the great activities for LEGO week!
Materials needed for the LEGO STEM Challenge Cards:
Paper
Book ring
Hole punch
LEGO
LEGO Classic Medium Creative Brick Box 10696
LEGO Classic Large Creative Brick Box 10698
More STEM Learning Fun: Building Block STEM Challenge Cards
To prep: Print & laminate the challenge cards. After cutting them apart punch a hole in the upper left corner of each one and put them on the book ring. (You can see an example here since my girls stole the cards before I completed that step.)
My 12 year-old wanted to use the LEGO bricks to create a landscape which you can see above. She is very into art and drawing right now, so I totally was not surprised at her choice. She is very much interested in making pretty things.
My 11 year-old wasn’t sure that she wanted to participate at first, but then I convinced her that doing this would be more fun than reading her book all afternoon.
Ok, I might not have actually convinced her… I took the book away and said I would give it back after she tried a challenge.
Got her. Hook, line and sinker.
She sat down and proceeded to complete four challenges in one big challenge. In fact, she worked for an hour telling me all about her project and what each part was, why she chose one type of block over another, the story behind the fire king, water queen and kidnapped baby in her castle.
Serious conversation here, people.
LEGO Classic Creative Bricks 10692 Building Blocks, Learning Toy
More STEM Learning Fun: Pattern Block Task Cards
She tried a lot of different things before she came up with the perfect bricks to use for a drawbridge.
Then, she created a corral for her horses. She even told me that these particular horses were so tame that they weren’t going to try to escape from the openings in her fence…
More LEGO Learning Fun: LEGO Addition Mat
Creating a tree was easy when she used the tree foliage bricks, so she decided that the castle needed some greenery like our spider plant.
And then she created a catapult that she placed on the wall of the castle in case they ever got invaded.
I loved connecting with her while she was learning.
I also love that she doesn’t realize she was learning. Maybe she’ll even try it again tomorrow…
Click Here to Get the LEGO Challenge Cards
More LEGO Activities You Will love!
Head on over to Toddler Approved where you can find all of the great activities for LEGO week ’16!
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Denise says
Just in time for summer! My three Lego-obsessed boys will use these for hours! Thank you!
Jessica says
Thank you so much for these! I’m excited for my girls to use them, and it’s made me think about possibly doing a Lego STEM class for our homeschool co-op next year.
I have 6 girls and my 3 oldest are 12, 11, and 10, so I had to read your post to them about your girls, how one was artistic and how you had to take a book away from another to make her try this, but they both enjoyed it–sounds like my house! 😉
theyoungs365 says
Thank you! my 5 year old loves legos and building. This is perfect for summer 🙂
Karrie says
What LEGO kit(s) would work with these?
Thanks!
Kim Staten says
This is designed to work with any LEGO. We used it with our LEGO classic set, but you are encouraged to use creativity with any bricks you might have on hand.