Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:

What are some lessons that you can use when teaching with LEGO bricks? What types of LEGO education kits should you buy? And what do you do when it comes to behavior management? This is part 2 of our LEGO episodes, and we are gonna be answering all those questions in today’s episode. In the last episode, I shared with you all of the systems to set up in your classroom when it comes to using LEGO bricks. It was so funny when I was planning this episode, the systems episode, I was talking so much that I needed to break it up into 2 parts. I really didn’t wanna overwhelm you with information, and part of it is because I haven’t done LEGO episodes before.

Naomi Meredith [00:01:29]:

So I wanna make sure you get all of the information so that it makes sense and is exactly what you are looking for. So, thanks for hanging out with me for this part 2. I will say I did record part 1 and part 2 back to back, but in your time, you are getting it weeks apart. So thank you for being patient and ready for part 2. Alright. So behavior management is really important when you are teaching with LEGO bricks. When I was working for the LEGO After School Club, this was so important to me because I had seen it in my own classroom, and the person that I was working for actually didn’t think behavior management was that important. It wasn’t a priority.

Naomi Meredith [00:02:19]:

It was a very interesting conversation. Also, I was working for someone who had never taught before, but behavior management really is a big part of having kids be successful when using LEGO bricks. Think about your classroom setting. Not every kid likes to build with LEGO bricks. They don’t. There are some kids who might not have ever built with LEGO bricks before. You need to have some systems in place and some rules in place so that it can go smoothly. There are also kids who are so obsessed with LEGO bricks that they are going to want to dominate the entire build, and they will also have a hard time collaborating.

Naomi Meredith [00:03:03]:

I learned this all the hard way, but I learned very quickly that having specific roles in their group is actually a game changer when you are using LEGO bricks. I was watching someone when I was in this LEGO after-school club who did not have roles, and it was absolute chaos. There were some kids who would just sit there and not do anything, and then there were kids who were dominating the whole time. And it brought me back to when I first used, like, LEGO Education Kids in my classroom. I had the same situation happen. But I don’t want that to happen to you. So, how do you give kids roles when they’re building with LEGO bricks? I like to group students in groups of 2 or 3. No more than that.

Naomi Meredith [00:03:47]:

If it’s a group of 4, it just is too much, and there isn’t enough for kids to do. So I will group them in groups of 2 or 3, and they have 3 specific roles. And you have a builder, a finder, and a director. And very self explanatory, but the builder will build the build. The finder is going to find the pieces. So when you look at a LEGO build that has directions, it will show you what pieces you need and how many. So they are in charge of finding the pieces. And then the director is in charge of the building directions.

Naomi Meredith [00:04:25]:

And in the last episode, I talked about how I would like to assign the builds using a digital platform like Seesaw. Or maybe you are using a LEGO Education Kit that already has an app, and the directions switch every 1 to 2 pages. They can decide in their group. There are some groups that will switch every single page because they need explicit directions. But then there are other groups who they’re more laid back, and they’re okay with switching every 2 pages, or some groups might even just keep their same roles for the entire day, and everybody is okay. It’s really important to have these roles. Most groups need them. Some really, really need them.

Naomi Meredith [00:05:17]:

Some specific kids really need those explicit rules, and they might even move spots. I have seen that before. It’s actually really cute. Not very efficient, but they actually might move spots when it’s their turn to do their job. This helps so much. There is less fighting. It does help even out the experience, And I tell them nobody is a master builder in here. We are all learning how to collaborate and do our best job.

Naomi Meredith [00:05:46]:

So it’s okay if you’ve built a lot of LEGOs, but you’re not gonna build the whole thing by yourself. That’s not what we do here. So these jobs are really, really helpful. If you are getting into a LEGO build, that is actually along with just robotics and how I do coding, which we’ll talk about in other episodes as well. I do have that planned, but as I record, things grow and change, but that isn’t my plan in this series. When they get to the coding part, if that is something your LEGO education kits use, there is a driver, a navigator, and a robot Wrangler. This is called paired programming. So you can actually talk about this with your kids.

Naomi Meredith [00:06:34]:

But the driver is the one who is going to be driving the actual device, the computer, and putting the code up on the screen. It doesn’t mean they have to know how to code. Everybody can help and be involved and talk about the code. They’re just the ones touching the computer. The navigator checks the code to make sure that everything is where it should be and everything’s connected before they press play. The robot wrangler is in charge of the robot, and they have to make sure the robot is set up before the code is going. And then they have to go get the robot if it ends up somewhere if it’s a moving robot. If you do have robots that roll, some of the builds might do that.

Naomi Meredith [00:07:18]:

I recommend having the robot on the floor. Do not put them on the tables. Sometimes the kids will make them go really fast. They’ll fall off. Their build goes everywhere. There are pieces all over the floor. They’re crying. They’re yelling.

Naomi Meredith [00:07:30]:

They’re screaming. Put the robot on the floor. Back to the building piece, I didn’t mention this, but there will be times when kids can’t find a piece. The newer the kits, the fewer problems you have. The more kids you have using kits, the more pieces go missing. So I do put these roles in place where if you can’t find a piece, what are you going to do? I give them those strategies of what to do when you can’t find a piece. And you might think, oh, I don’t need to do this. You do.

Naomi Meredith [00:08:01]:

Because they’re gonna ask you the same thing. I can’t find it. So let me tell you what I tell them and then something about that. Here are the strategies I tell kids if they cannot find a piece. 1st is to look in the big part of the bin. If you haven’t seen a LEGO education kit before, they come in these big bins, and there’s usually some sort of tray on top that can be removed and actually placed inside of the lid so it doesn’t slide around. But there’s a bottom part, and sometimes some pieces end up down there. So kids need to look.

Naomi Meredith [00:08:37]:

Did you check in the big part of the bin? The next one is to ask another group. Sometimes, another group might accidentally have their piece. They might just have one extra, and so they need to ask another group politely. The other groups can say yes. The other groups can say no, but they are allowed to ask, not take. Also, another strategy if they can’t find a piece is to check the spare parts shelf. And in the last episode, I talked to you all about the spare parts shelf and how I get that all organized. If the kids try all three strategies, all 3, they have to try all 3, and they still can’t find the piece, they have to problem-solve and use a related piece that can complete the task.

Naomi Meredith [00:09:25]:

I would give kids this example when I was remodeling my townhome. I use this example a lot. But when I was remodeling my townhome, and if I tried all these strategies, then I still couldn’t do something. I had to figure it out. I couldn’t go whine to my parents and say, figure it out for me. And I also would tell the kids, do you see on here do any of these say, go whine at Miss Meredith and tell her you can’t find a piece? And they’re all, no. I’m like, exactly. So it doesn’t say go tell Miss Meredith I can’t find it.

Naomi Meredith [00:09:57]:

I probably can’t find it either. If you did all these things as a group and you still can’t find it, I probably can’t find it. And that really helps too with their independence. I didn’t have kids following me around the class like a baby duck. I said I’m not your mommy. You’re not my baby ducks, that they weren’t following me and telling me they can’t find a piece. Sometimes when I was talking with them, I might know where one is. But overall, kids knew not to ask me where a piece was, I probably couldn’t find it.

Naomi Meredith [00:10:27]:

When you’re building with the LEGO bricks, and let’s say you do have the opportunity for kids to continue their builds day after day, What I would have them do is write their names on a sticky note, put the sticky note on the top of their lid, put their build on top of it, and then any extra pieces go inside. And then I had some shelves in my classroom where they could put all their builds. It will look a little bit messy, but whatever. It all worked out okay. When I had my LEGO after-school clubs, kids actually had to take apart their builds every single day because I was taking the kits to a new school every day. And so they did have to deconstruct. I did not give them roles in that. They just had to all help out and make sure everything was where it needed to go.

Naomi Meredith [00:11:12]:

When we had the big Duplo blocks, and I did mention this in the last episode, they had to take apart their builds because they were quick challenges and more creative challenges. They did have to take them apart and then sort them by color. One thing you can add in, if you wanna do this once a week or if you have different kids every day, is I would have the kids I did this in my LEGO after-school club because they got really good at building because they’re doing it every week. I actually had the kids check a color. So in LEGO Education Kits, the newer kits are sorted by color, and so each day had a different color that they were responsible for. So my Monday group had to go through the blues and make sure all the blues were there to check all the numbers, put back any extras, and make sure they got the spares that they were missing. Tuesday was responsible for the black pieces. Wednesday was responsible for the green.

Naomi Meredith [00:12:10]:

So that was a really great way to make sure the inventory was pretty good in the kits, and overall, they had most of the pieces. So I wasn’t sitting at home and going through them. So that’s a great strategy. You can do that once a month, or maybe if you have kids, like, maybe you’re not using LEGO education kits, then maybe you have some kids who come in from recess and help you organize throughout the week. Again, so you’re not doing it, and kids actually are really fast at it and enjoy the process. Alright. In terms of lessons, what kinds of lessons should you use and what kits to buy? So these are gonna gonna go back and forth. If you are thinking about LEGO Education Kits specifically, you can actually get started on their website, you can see the different types of kits they have available, and you can actually browse through the lessons that are already there.

Naomi Meredith [00:13:03]:

There’s not a whole time, but there is enough where it will give you questions to think about. There are videos to show them in action. Some of the kits have related science activities that can go with them, and then you can also again find those PDF versions of the builds in case you need to print any or use them to assign digitally like I did in Seesaw. I’m gonna go through the different types of kits that I used, and I ended up using the lessons that went with these kits. I didn’t really create my own when it came to, like, LEGO education kits because there were some already good ones out there. And so when it comes to my k through fives time year-long plan, when you see LEGO Education Kits on there, those are not things that I’ve made up myself. Out of all the things, coding and LEGO Education Kits are the units that I didn’t create from scratch because there are already resources out there that were really good. In kindergarten, I had the opportunity to get the STEAM Park Express Kits, and I sorted all the pieces by color, so I talked more about that in part one of this little LEGO episode saga.

Naomi Meredith [00:14:18]:

And I had this sorted by color, and every day was a different challenge. And you can kinda see on the LEGO Education website where they’re building a different part of the amusement park. And you talk about different things with simple machines and force and motion. And what’s really cute about this, it’s more exploratory for your youngest students. There is a picture where kids can replicate what’s on the picture. So if it’s an amusement park ride, kids can try to find the pieces to build that. There aren’t step by step directions. It’s more exploratory.

Naomi Meredith [00:14:50]:

Or kids can design their own ride that is related. A lot of kids actually really wanted to build what’s on the screen as a starting place, and then they would add on, which was really, really cool. I did, by the end of my 5 years, have enough LEGO education kits where every single grade level had a different kit. I did use older kits, which was really awesome, but you may or may not have that opportunity. So I have heard of people using LEGO kits throughout the year, and so maybe everybody is doing robotics, with different types of robots, but maybe 5th grade is using the LEGO Education Kit. And then maybe you’re moving on to 3D printing, and then 4th grade is using a kit. So if you don’t have enough, but you wanna still plan thematically, plan thematically, but sometimes one group might be off by a unit just based on the materials that you have. In 1st grade, I used the discontinued LEGO WeDo 1.0 kits.

Naomi Meredith [00:15:50]:

And if you see these before, there’s a lot of yellow and red bricks. The actual build plugs into a computer with a USB cord, and then you have to download the software on the device. The software actually still worked. There were a lot of blocks on our computers at my school, so I couldn’t go and download them on all the devices, but the builds were actually still really good. In 2nd grade, I did a simple machine kit. Those are also discontinued, and they actually moved by using simple machines. So there wasn’t any coding involved. This kit was actually really good, and I love the connections with simple machines.

Naomi Meredith [00:16:29]:

We would talk about a different simple machine every day. So this one is a really fun one, and they started adding on and creating other things while they were building. So I wish they still had that kit because I really liked that one. In 3rd grade, we did the LEGO WeDo 2.0, which has the popular Milo, the science rover. That’s usually one of the first builds that you do. There are a lot of blue and green pieces, and it’s that skinny blue case. What’s really interesting is LEGO actually took away the app, and then people got upset, and then they put the app back. But as far as I have read, the app is going to be discontinued completely front in August 2024.

Naomi Meredith [00:17:25]:

You are able to connect your We Dos to Scratch. So that’s really awesome where you have that option where you can do that type of block based coding, and it is a little more challenging in a good way. The coding is very, very simple for the WeDo 2 point o’s, but the kits are awesome. There are limited challenges. So if you do need more challenges, I did write, different versions of kinds of builds that you can use with LEGO WeDo 2.0. I have in my membership the STEM teacher bookshelf as a bonus. All of the builds, and there are some others I need to add, but different bonus builds that you can use with WeDo 2.0, and also some easier challenges for your younger students and some harder challenges for your older students. So, I’ll link that in the show notes.

Naomi Meredith [00:18:12]:

It’s a bonus, $9 a month. If you don’t wanna do all the reading in the book bookshelf but just join for the LEGO WeDo challenges, that’s a great option. In 4th grade, I had the BricQ Motion Prime. There are 2 different BricQ Kits. I had the older one. This one was really cool because it was about force and motion when it comes to sports. And it was a lot of winter sports, not all winter sports, but it was super cool because, again, these fields didn’t move with coding. They moved with different types of motion in sports.

Naomi Meredith [00:18:46]:

And there are some cool little experiments to try with all of them that are on their website. For the younger kids, I have had friends in my district when I worked there who have this kit, but it’s the BridQ Essential Kit, Motion Essential, And that kit is really awesome, too. Again, they move by different sports, so different than the older kids, and a lot of fun there. So those 2 kits are cheaper because there aren’t any electronics for that. There’s not they’re not considered robotics because there isn’t any coding involved, but it is fun to mix it up. And, if you’re looking for a place to start for kits, those are great because you might be able to afford those a lot easier. For my 5th graders and for my LEGO after-school club, I use the LEGO spike essential kits, which come in those big yellow buckets, and coding is involved. I did more challenging projects with my 5th graders, but when I did this as a LEGO after-school club, K-5 could definitely do the challenges.

Naomi Meredith [00:19:49]:

If you pick more of the simple challenges, even for the older kids, it works great. You can just do one-day challenges. If you really only have different kids every day, you can build, take apart, build, take apart every day. If you have older students, like 6, 7, and 8, the LEGO SPIKE Prime Kits are really great for that one. There are more of the LEGO Technic pieces and more complicated coding, which is really great. Also, LEGO SPIKE Essential has more icon block coding and more of the traditional, like scratch coding, and you can switch between the 2. I do know with the other kit, it’s a little more complicated in a good way. So if you’re trying to decide between which kit is which, the spike essential is for elementary, and the spike prime is for the older, like, beyond elementary. Now if you are somebody like, I cannot afford LEGO education kits, that is something that’s not going to be happening, That is okay.

Naomi Meredith [00:20:50]:

You can still use those mixed bricks. That is definitely a possibility. And a big thing I like to tell teachers is when you are planning with mixed bricks of LEGOs, you actually plan it just like a makerspace lesson. Your medium is just LEGO bricks and not recycled materials. So think about that when you’re planning your lessons. Lessons. You can definitely do very similar things. You can also think about stem and stories lessons where you are building to solve the problem that is related to the book.

Naomi Meredith [00:21:24]:

I have a bunch of lessons for you to get started separate from my k through 5 STEM year-long plan, but different lessons that you can use to get started, and those are actually really great for sub plans. Also, if you wanna do a stem station with lit mix LEGO bricks, I have some engineer inspiration boards that are thematic for different holidays throughout the year or different months, and kids can see those items, choose what they wanna build, and build how they wanna represent it with the LEGO bricks. So that’s a great challenge to keep the building purposeful. It’s not exactly a free build, but they have a small challenge they have to solve and then represent it with their bricks. Along with that, you can also try some task cards, and that is a new line that I’m coming up with. I have a really fun one that I did that really connects well with my STEM career quest podcast for kids, and it’s all about insects and spiders because my first guest interview was with entomologists, scientists who study bugs, and each of the task cards is how to build and represent something. One of my favorite ones, because I had just learned about this, is an insect hotel where it is actually a safe place for natural insects in your garden or backyard to have a home, and it’s to help really help pollinators and really help the life cycle of bugs. So students can learn more about an insect hotel and how to build that.

Naomi Meredith [00:22:52]:

But that’s just one of 20 challenges that are in those cards. So LEGOs are a great way to build these small challenges, but also they can take them apart at the end. They could take a picture in Seesaw. But just a really great way to have those reusable items if LEGO education kits are not a possibility, or maybe they are, and you just want to use those in a different way. In this episode, we talked about behavior management when it comes to using LEGO bricks in your classroom and different types of kits and lessons that you can focus on. If you haven’t already, go and check out part 1 where I talk more about the systems and routines in relation to LEGO bricks in your classroom. But I appreciate you being here on this journey. If you love the jobs that I was talking about and hear you’re like, oh my gosh.

Naomi Meredith [00:23:47]:

Those are amazing. They are amazing. Let me tell you. They’re a game changer. I have all of those roles inside of my STEM teacher 101 course, where I talk about different jobs and why they’re important when working on STEM projects, not just LEGO bricks, but those posters are in there for you. They’re actually not in my shop at the time of this recording, but they’re in there for you. They’re ready to go, kid friendly color and black and white, and you can use them when you use LEGO bricks in your classroom. Thank you so much for being here, and I will see you in the next episode.