Kids love LEGO. Let’s be honest. Also, a lot of kids are home from school right now with parents who need to work remotely at the same time. Finding ways to (quietly) entertain kids is probably going to be difficult for a lot of us. So, with that in mind, when I came up with the idea based on my own kid’s recent “I wanted to do it, so I built it” intensity, I thought, “why not try to come up with a daily challenge while we’re all home?” Basically, if I have to write it up for myself and my kiddo, I then decided, “Well, I might as well share them on GeekMom so that if other parents want to use them, they can.” Using the show LEGO Masters, my previous interactions with LEGO Education, and what I know my kid learns in school as my inspiration, I designed this LEGO MiniMasters post series.
See previous MiniMasters posts:
What is a community?
If you need some resources, I found elementary level and middle/high school level sources so that you can refresh your kids’ memories or give them the definitions necessary.
The Children’s Britannica has a great overview definition of ecosystem for kids, if you need to explain what an ecosystem is or want to give your kids some research.
If you’re looking for something intended for older kids, the Khan Academy “Social Institutions” lesson is a bit more in depth.
You can take the suggested “measurements” and adjust according to skill level.
Design a Community Challenge: Directions for Kids
With this challenge, you need to design community out of bricks and minifigures. Your community can be anywhere—space, Earth, fantasy world—that your imagination takes you.
You need to tell a story about the community and how the different members work together.
Planning Phase for Designing a Community
The first 30-40 minutes should be your planning phase.
- What does your community need?
- What groups does it have?
- Where is it located?
- What are the important buildings?
- Who are the important people?
- How big is your community?
- Where is your community located?
- Rural?
- Agrarian?
- City?
- Suburb?
Building Phase for the Community
This can take as long as you would like. We suggest 40-80 minutes depending on age and complexity of ecosystem.
Your build should include:
- The people who are important
- The places people spend time
- How people get around/transportation
- What people need to live in the community
- What makes people enjoy their community
Parent Judging Criteria
Creativity/originality:
- Is this something that exists in real life?
- What makes this community “yours”?
- What did you change?
- Where is it located?
Design:
- Visual
- How did you use the colors?
- How do the colors support the story?
- Does it have unique shapes?
- Construction
- Was it sturdy enough to make it from the build location to the judging location?
- Were there any unique construction methods used? (Think, shape of buildings, layout—anything that looks like the construction is creative.)
- Height: the taller the structures on the build, the more the child has to plan.
Community elements:
- Did the build include all elements of a community?
- How clear are the community elements?
- Can the child explain the elements and how they connect to one another?
Storytelling:
- How much of the story can the judge see on their own?
- What is the level of detail?
- If minifigures are used, are they “showing” part of the story by how they’re posed?
- Are there interactions between the different elements?
If you’d like to share your child’s builds in the comments—please do! We’d love to see them!
