Lego Team Building Challenge with Stories

LEGO TEAM CHALLENGE w/STORIES

This is Lego brick play that allows students to exercise their building, engineering, teamwork, imagination, story-telling and listening skills. Some children like building in cooperation with their friends and make it one of their favorite social activities. Others do not like the group dynamic and prefer solitary building and minimal interaction. There will be students who love to speak and tell a story about their creation and others who absolutely do not like speaking to a group. The respectful thing to do is to honor all styles of interaction. The only thing that is universal to all participants is the enjoyment of Lego building. Your students will look forward to this and when it goes well, there is nothing better. You can occasionally award prizes such as stickers or treats to every team and participant.

MATERIALS: 1. Legos

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HOW TO PRESENT IT TO YOUR GROUP 1. Assign students to compatible groups of 2-4.

2. Explain that each group will select a piece of paper with a theme. Their team will be tasked with creating a Lego build that relates to that theme. There will be a time limit (usually 25 minutes).

3. At the end of the time, each team will have 2 minutes to tell the story of what is happening in their creation. Each member will get 30 sec- onds to speak but can transfer their time to another team member if they like. Some peo- ple like to speak and others don’t; this should be respected. The other teams should make the effort to be respectful listeners.

4. The team can build one thing together or each person can build a part or they can just build with their own flow.

5. The themes are guidelines; if you draw Zoo and Hippo you could have a space zoo with hippo ship pilots. Use your imagination and tell it in your story.

6. Builders should be sparing when gathering Legos. You should only take what you need for that moment. Grabbing and stockpiling extra pieces is not allowed. 7. Alert the teams when there is 10 minutes left and 5 minutes left. Excess debris must be cleared from their area before the story-telling starts.

THE LESSON: Lego challenge teaches students how to work in a team. You can work together on a build or in a parallel fashion but always cooperate with and speak to your fellow team members. It is a good example of developing imagination and storytelling.