Activities With Lego

​The idea behind this is to get you thinking about really simple stuff you can do with your small folk that really is no cost and involves only the things that you have lying around at home. This involves a bit of creative thinking and using what you've got in a different way. I'm going to try and help you to not feel restricted by not having the 'right' things available and learn to improvise with what you have to hand instead.
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​To do all these activities you will need

10 lego bricks per person - If you don't have lego/duplo them wooden blocks or stickle bricks or dominoes or jenga or anything that you can stack up basically.
 
A dice - if you don't have one, perhaps check your board games you may find one there, or a spinner from a game or even a random number generator on your phone will work.
 
A tea towel - or a muslin square or a sheet of paper or some kitchen towel or a
​t-shirt. Anything that you can use to cover things up
 
Tape - or string or a ruler or a piece of paper or the edge of your rug, anything you can mark a straight line with.
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Wobbly Tower

You will need

​5 rectanglar bricks per player plus 1 brick (this one only really works with lego/diplo unless you fancy using it to learn fractions!)
A dice
 
Object of the game - You can either play cooperatively and try to get all the bricks into the tower as a team before it falls over or play against each other jenga style and the player that makes the tower fall loses.
 

How to play - Give 5 bricks to each player, place the extra brick in the middle. Take it in turns to roll the dice, whatever number you roll you use that number of 'bumps' to attach your brick to the tower (or balance it on that fraction on the brick below - 1/6th 4/6ths etc) If you roll a 5 you get free choice and can attach your brick with any number of 'bumps' you like. Keep going until all the bricks are used up or the tower falls!
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Tower Race

You will need
 
10 bricks per person
A dice
 
Object of the game - To be the first to build a tower of 10 bricks.
 
How to play - Take it in turns to roll the dice, on the first round whatever you roll you add that number of bricks to your tower, on the second round you take away the number of bricks off your tower. (If the number to take away is more than you have you take them all and end up with zero, no minus figures here!) Keep going, alternating adding and taking away until someone has a tower of 10.
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Mirror image

You will need

​Identical sets of 5-10 bricks for each person playing
Tape
 
Object of the game - To make a mirror image
 
How to play - This works best in pairs or an adult and a team of children. Mark out a straight line using the tape. Chose who is creating and who is making the mirror image. The creator uses their bricks to make a pattern on one side of the straight line. Once the pattern is in place the other player or team tries to create the mirror image.
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Which brick is missing?

​You will need
 
5-15 bricks
Tea towel
 
Object of the game - To identify the missing brick
 
How to play - Lay out some bricks on the floor/table. Depending on the age of your little one and how easy or complex you would like to make it, you can choose to do anything from a small number of bricks in a line to a larger number in a random configuration. Let your child see how the bricks are laid and ask them to try and remember which one is where. Cover with a tea towel and secretly remove and hide one brick. Uncover and see if you child can identify the missing brick.
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Matching Sculpture 

​You will need

Identical sets of 5-10 bricks for each person playing
 
Object of the game - Build a simple sculpture that the other players can replicate.
 

How to play - Choose who will be the builder and who will be copying. The builder secretly makes a simple structure using the bricks the have. (For younger children you can use a small number of basic bricks, for older children tou can use more brick and more complicated ones.) Show your sculpture to the players who are copying and see if they can make one that matches.
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​I hope that gives you a few idea of how to use your lego or other bricks in a new way! I would love to hear how you've been using your lego bricks, any idea on how to expand or adapt the games here or please adding any that you play at home with your little people. Have fun, experiment and I look forward to seeing what you've been doing!
 

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By Jeni Atkinson