Starting a LEGO Club in Your Community
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The 20th anniversary of the original LEGO Club is the perfect time to start your own club for your family, friends, neighborhood or school group!
Katherine Heiberger and her children, Brian and Kelly, spent so many fun hours playing with her father’s beloved collection of LEGO bricks that she was inspired to start a LEGO Club for Brian’s kindergarten class. The club would be a great way to share her father’s love of creativity with the newest generation of builders, and it would be educational and build social skills, too. Today, Katherine’s imaginative building sessions bring parents and children together in play.
Here are some of her favorite tips for starting a LEGO Club in your own community!
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MAKE IT A FAMILY AFFAIR
Invite parents and kids to come build together. Parents often appreciate activities that they can take part in. As the organizer, you’ll appreciate the extra help that other parents can offer. If most of the parents work full-time, you can encourage them to participate by holding special Club days once a month to help them attend, such as on a Saturday morning or early evening.
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BUILD YOUR CLUB BRICK BY BRICK
You’ll need plenty of LEGO pieces in all shapes, colors and sizes so that kids can build and create whatever they want. Ask members to donate a small bag of their bricks to share with the club. Keep all of the bricks in one place to use each time the club meets.
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SET YOUR GROUND RULES
Katherine’s first rule is “have fun!” But along with fun comes the need for kids to act respectfully toward each other and to make sure everyone has a positive experience. At the first meeting, make sure everyone understands what is expected. Katherine’s rules include:- Don’t take LEGO bricks from other people.
- Respect the creations of others.
- Clean up when you’re finished.
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HAVE REGULAR MEETINGS
Make the Club a scheduled event. Set a beginning and ending time. Depending on the age of the kids, 1 to 2 hours may work best. This gives kids something to look forward to and helps parents schedule their time. Katherine likes to hold her Club meetings once every other week.
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THEME IT!
Each meeting is an opportunity to explore and learn about a new topic. Katherine recommends selecting broad themes such as space, the ocean, or transportation, and asking kids to make structures from that theme. This keeps the kids focused, but also lets them use their imaginations.
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SHOW AND TELL
After the kids have finished building, have everyone share their creations with the group and tell the other Club members what they built and why. The key here is that all the kids listen to each other.
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CLEAN UP TOGETHER
When the fun is over, make sure there’s still time to put everything away for next time. For some kids, taking the models apart again is the best part of building. For others, seeing everyone else disassemble their bricks makes it easier for them to put their own creations away.
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