I wanted to share some of the ideas that I have had in my classroom. As a teacher, I know that often you best ideas are actually snagged from other teachers. So I just want to say that mine are up for grabs.
First of all, I have a Lego theme in my classroom. My 5th graders absolutely love it and it has definitely earned me some cool-teacher points. So if you're in the market for a new class theme, here are some pics for ideas.
This was an activity I did the first day of school. You're probably familiar with the "Everything is Awesome" lyrics from the popular Lego movie. The 2nd line is "Everything is cool when you're part of a team." So we talked about how they were now part of a team - a class - and that things would be awesome if we worked together. They each designed a Lego man to mirror themselves. It was good times.
I'm not a huge fan of morning work - don't get me wrong, I do think that kids should come in and be productive, but I just prefer to go at it from another angle. I have multiple Lego bins in my room. So when the kids come in, they can grab a bin, take it to their desk, and build away until the first bell rings. I encourage them to "innovate" and build and try new things. They have really gotten into this. I also have thought about adding little challenge cards that they could do as well, like building a bridge that can withstand a certain weight, or designing an aircraft with certain specifications or something. I'll come back to that another time.
I think this is a nice little message to have on the wall. I want to encourage all of my kids to look for opportunities to help and uplift their peers - to "be someone's hero."
I have too much fun with this. I built it out of 4 Lego bases, wood, and a slew of other pieces. Each month, I decorate it with a theme of the month. For instance, in October, I built a little haunted house and had a zombie coming out of the ground. The kids are super excited to see what I create each month. If you've got some good designers, you could let the kids decorate the calendar as well.
Attached to each desk (via hot glue) are Duplo base plates (4x4 - I glued them to a board then cut them up into 4x4 sections). This way I can other things on top of each min base plate. The blue, green, yellow, and red I use for behavior management. The blue means they're doing a great job, if they move down a block to green, that's their warning. If they move to yellow, that's $.50 from their checkbook (we use an economy system in our grade level). And finally, if they move to red, they must fill out a reflection form, and they lose an additional $.50. It has worked really well for me. The larger bricks beneath are name pieces. I have two blocks so the large green brick has block 1, and the red is block 2. Also, I have an assortment of random pieces that I got with my other Duplo sets that I have given as awards. Like a flame piece for students who are on fire. They just stick the awards they recieve on top and they get to add $.50 to their checkbook for each one.
Just more decor.
A couch that I built from large building bricks. They're not actually Lego, but they go with the theme.
More decor. The kids just think it's super rad (as do I :). Honestly, I think I have more fun with the whole Lego theme than my students do, but that's how I keep teaching fun. By adding stuff that I'm into as well.
So there you have it. A Lego-themed classroom.
