Wednesday, January 26, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
15
ON
LEARNING WITH LEGO
Young or old, it’s common knowledge that we learn best when
learning feels more like play than work.
Sisters Elementary School STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering,
Mathematics) Teacher Jocelyn Gary Blevins recently led kindergarten
teachers in a session exploring ways to use education-oriented
LEGO education sets purchased through a STEM grant from Sisters’
Roundhouse Foundation. Roundhouse also provided funds for storage
facilities for STEM-related equipment and materials.
The grant provides class sets for each classroom. The sets are
designed to promote learning in English Language Arts (ELA),
mathematics, and in the “social-emotional” arena.
For mathematics, students learn by “decomposing” and putting
back together LEGO structures and figures — adding and subtracting
as they go. Storytelling is the foundation of the ELA instruction. Kits
contain prepared story materials.
“As you’re telling stories, the kids are building the pieces of it,”
Blevins said. “They’re acting, playing, and learning a story as they
build the background to it…
They have all the diff erent modalities going on in their heads.”
Build Me Emotions helps young children identify emotions through
the expressions on LEGO characters’ faces. Through a story, the
children identify expressions, name emotions, “build” that emotion
with the LEGOS, and talk through problem-solving.
Calm Down Construction helps children express feelings through
building something. Both elements are tied to the “social-emotional”
aspect of learning.
Not only does the directed “learning through play” impart
educational benefits — it also builds fine motor skills as the children
build and take apart structures and characters.
The use of LEGO is scalable up into older grades, where LEGO
THANK YOU,
TEACHERS
The Nugget
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robotics come into
play. “They can
engineer anything,”
Blevins said.
The “play” starts
to become related to
real-world activity.
Blevins hopes to
see the program
link up with the
construction of
a new Sisters
Elementary School
over the next
couple of years.
“We were
thinking we could
tie in the LEGO
Robotics with the landscape architecture piece,” she said.
Teachers brainstormed ways of using the LEGO sets in the
classroom — all part of ongoing eff orts to use innovative and exciting
ways to reach children and not only impart knowledge, but a love of
learning. Because learning is easiest and best when it’s fun.
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