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Lego Build to Express Develops Problem Solving and Thinking Skills

10th May 2013

This year our children have loved getting to experience using 'Lego Build to Express' as a way of challenging and supporting them in developing their problem solving and thinking skills. Lego Build to Express uses traditional Lego bricks to help students develop a deeper understanding of what they’re learning through building, reflection, and dialogue. The use of Lego has actively involved all of our pupils in their own learning, and provides them with opportunities to generate their own questions as part of our inquiry based approach to learning. During our Lego building sessions, children are encouraged to actively listen, think creatively, and cooperate to solve problems. Using a build and share model ensures that all of our children are given the opportunity to be engaged and be heard in the classroom. Lego is a powerful curriculum resource that can be used across all year groups and learner abilities. The program applies to all grade levels and, according to Lego Education, not only supports all core subjects in a curriculum, but actually enhances them by making difficult subjects easier to understand and – once a student grasps them – a more concrete foundation is formed. Discovering that they had been appointed as the Kings and Queens of a new Island Kingdom this week, our Reception children were given the Lego challenge of building a model to show their interpretation of what a clean island ‘environment’ looks like as part of our focus project on sustainability this term. The children had to work together, contribute and share their ideas in order to construct a model in order to show their understanding about the environment. In the coming weeks, the children will build on this foundation to explore deeper the ideas and concepts surrounding sustainability, and the important role they can play as global citizens of the future. See photos from their recent Lego Build to Express session here. In light of recent education news about Lego opening a new Independent School in Denmark, we are thrilled to have introduced the Lego Build to Express concept at Wandsworth Prep this year and to have witnessed the excitement and progress made by pupils as a result of this approach to learning. You can read the recent news on this new school here.