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:
LEGO MiniMasters 1: Ecosystem
LEGO MiniMasters 2: Community
LEGO MiniMasters 3: Estimation Station
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.
This School Run post gives a great explanation with visuals for younger kids.
This Khan Academy “Perimeter and Area” lesson is pretty fantastic for middle schoolers and up if they need a refresher course.
The super cool thing about using LEGO systems for this challenge is that you can teach the concept of area to younger kids by having them count the number of pegs in the arena or the number of a certain sized brick that would fit, such as 4 pegs by 4 pegs.
You can take the suggested “measurements” and adjust according to skill level.
With this challenge, you need to design an arena out of bricks and minifigures.
An arena is a place where people go to see sports or concerts. Think about football (US or European!) stadiums or baseball stadiums.
You need to tell a story about the space station such as why it was created or what it does in space – the story is only limited by your imagination!
The first 30 -40 minutes should be your planning phase.
Think about all the things you want in your arena. Including:
This can take as long as you would like. We suggest 40-80 minutes depending on age and complexity of the arena.
Your build should include:
Once you finish your Area Arena, find the area of the space. Make sure to write down all your work and double-check it.
Just because there’s math doesn’t mean that you should make something simple. Challenge yourself because both accuracy and challenging yourself are part of the judging!
If you’d like to share your child’s builds in the comments – please do! We’d love to see them!
This post was last modified on March 18, 2020 10:24 pm
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